Backsliding Wings hope to find their game tonight against Columbus
Red Wings coach Mike Babcock doesn't have to look too deeply into the NHL stats package to figure out why his team has been struggling lately.
Before Monday's 5-2 win over lowly Edmonton, the Wings had given up 10 goals combined in their previous two games, and 81 shots combined in the two games before that, both one-goal victories.
Detroit had ranked in the top half-dozen in the league in goals-against, but when Babcock looked at the numbers heading into Thursday night's game against visiting Columbus, the Wings were much farther down the list.
"Bottom line, we haven't been good enough," he said. "Giving up five and five, though one was an empty-netter, any way you look at it, it's way too many. I look at the stats one day and we're fifth in goals-against. Suddenly we're 10th or 11th. That's too many goals."
For the record, Detroit ranked 10thon Thursday, allowing 2.46 goals per game. Everyone in the Wings' dressing room knows this isn't the time for that kind of backsliding.
"There's only 17 games left before the playoffs," forward Drew Miller said. "You can't just limp your way in and then decide you're going to play well."
With his team struggling all season long against top-tier conference opponents like Montreal, Tampa Bay and even Boston, winner of the President's Trophy last year, taking advantage of visits like Columbus, which has been decimated by injuries this season, is important. But that's easier said than done, Babcock said, because his players can read the standings too, and see the Blue Jackets far behind them in the standings.
"Look, we (coaches) try to make everyone look like the '68 Montreal Canadiens. It doesn't matter what their record is, that's what we try to do," Babcock said, describing how he tries to build up opponents as he's preparing his players. "But they don't believe us.
"So the bottom line is we know we've got to get better. We aren't firing on all cylinders right now like we were two weeks ago. It's time to get our game back so we can have some good closure to the season."
It would help, the coach added, if the Wings got a bit healthier. He's especially anxious to get Darren Helm back on the left wing of his top line with Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Tatar, a speed unit that was devastating opponents before Helm went down with an oblique muscle strain that has kept him out of the last four games.
"We need Helmer back," Babcock said. "I'm hoping he can get back soon. We're a way better team with him in and then we can put Glennie (Luke Glendening) back in his right spot -- and suddenly we've got four real good lines."
But while the Wings were hoping to get Helm back this weekend -- they play at Philadelphia on Saturday and at Pittsburgh on Sunday -- Helm sounded a bit frustrated with his progress after Thursday's practice.
Asked if there's any part of his game the injury seems to be most effecting, he responded, "Yeah, skating. There's not a lot of power there. You need to be able to skate to play, to be effective. I can't play until I can do that."
With Glendening doing yeoman's work in place of Helm on Datsyuk's line, Tomas Jurco was to be deployed on the fourth line again with Miller and Joakim Andersson, Babcock said. That would mean that Stephen Weiss would be a healthy scratch for the second straight game.
