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"Embarrassed" Wings Reach Rock Bottom

The Red Wings used many adjectives to describe Wednesday's game, the most notable being "embarrassing" and "disgraceful." To say it was un-Red Wing-like, a term coach Mike Babcock often uses, would be an understatement.

In an inexplicably dreadful performance, the Red Wings lost to the Blues 10-3 at Joe Louis Arena. Simply put, they were outworked in every phase of the game, outhustled all over the ice. It was a shocking effort by a club that is supposedly preparing for a Stanley Cup championship run, and it came against a team that is close to being eliminated from playoff contention.

Not surprisingly, the Wings were booed soundly by the sellout crowd of 20,066.

"We weren't very good, obviously. The puck kept going in our net," Babcock said. "We didn't compete hard enough. That's the bottom line."

The Wings, however, are confident they can turn it around, with just five games remaining, including Saturday's contest against Nashville, a team that has beaten them four times in a row.

The Wings believe the problem isn't because of personnel, their system or their style of play. They said it boils down to effort, which they believe they can improve.

It certainly can't get any worse.

BLUES 10, RED WINGS 3: Many of the problems that have plagued the Wings the last few months resurfaced as they got off to a bad start, committed too many turnovers and had numerous defensive lapses. It was so bad that both of their goaltenders were pulled. Joey MacDonald left at 5:23 of the second period after allowing five goals on 25 shots. But he returned at the start of the third, after Thomas McCollum, in his NHL debut, surrendered three goals on eight shots, in front of a team that simply was not engaged. Leading 3-2 after the first period, the Blues blew it open with five goals in the second.

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