DETROIT -- Complain all you want about inconsistent goaltending, inexcusable defensive breakdowns and giveaways at both ends of the ice, and specialty teams that have contributed to far more losses than wins lately.
There are two bigger reasons, however, why the Red Wings suddenly find themselves in a desperate race to make the playoffs.
Their names are Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk -- their two best players. One isn't producing, and the other isn't even playing.
That has to change in the final five games of the regular season or the Wings might well find themselves on the outside looking in when the playoffs begin.
With 24 goals among 60 points in 59 games, Datsyuk is by far the team's most productive player, but was out of the lineup for the seventh time in nine games when the Wings lost a backbreaker, 3-2, Thursday to visiting Boston.
Zetterberg, the team's leading scorer with 61 points in 73 games, was held scoreless again and is in one of the worst slumps of his career.
These guys have to play and produce if the Wings are to have any chance to finish the season in a way that will allow them to enjoy an offseason that appears to be coming their way too quickly.
They take a three-game losing streak into the weekend, with games at Minnesota on Saturday and back at Joe Louis Arena on Sunday against Washington. The Wings, 4-9-2 in their last 15, have slipped into a tie with Boston at 93 points each with a week left in the season. They must find ways to get some points to lockdown a playoff spot.
It starts with Datsyuk. He has to play -- and he says he will -- when the Wings face off against the Wild at 7 p.m. Saturday on FOX Sports Detroit PLUS.
One the most gifted players in the world, Datsyuk seems to be one of those guys who doesn't like playing unless he's 100 percent. We saw that occasionally with Sergei Fedorov, whose teammates often whispered that he was keeping himself out of the lineup with annoying injuries that didn't stop other players.
"We have to think big picture," Datsyuk said the other day, indicating that more rest and rehab of a lower body injury would pay off down the road for when his team needed him most -- in the payoffs.
Well guess what? TYou need to win some games now or there won't be any playoffs. Besides, Pavel Datsyuk at 75 percent is -- like Fedorov a generation before him -- better than most of the other players in the NHL.
Besides that, who among all his teammates is 100 percent after being banged around for 77 games through the season to date? Drew Miller put his mug in harm's way two nights after nearly losing an eye. What will it take for Datsyuk to rejoin the teammates who need him?
So much like the past few years, Detroit's "playoffs" begin a few weeks before the end of the season, in a desperate race to stake claim to a berth in the tournament.
It didn't have to be this way. A month or so ago, they appeared so secure in the third spot in the Atlantic Division -- they were actually jockeying with Montreal and Tampa Bay for the division lead -- that the playoffs seemed automatic. They were 11 points ahead of the fourth-place Bruins in the standings and then everything went south -- including Zetterberg's production.
The Red Wings captain has a paltry two assists in his last nine games, during which his team has won twice. In fact, in the 27 games Zetterberg has played since scoring a hat trick against Buffalo on Jan. 28, he's scored just two goals.
This simply isn't good enough, and as accountable as the captain has been throughout his career, he'll be the first to admit it.
The Red Wings need more from their two biggest stars, who have shown over the years they have a considerable knack for leading my example.
This is their moment.
HOWARD BACK IN
After sleeping on it, Wings coach Mike Babcock reversed himself and said Jimmy Howard will get the start in goal Saturday at Minnesota.
Mrazek, who allowed a bad, game-winning goal Thursday against Boston, will start Sunday against Washington (5 p.m, face-off on FOX Sports Detroit), the coach said.
