Jeff Riger: Not The Start The Wings Wanted
It is truly uncharted waters in Hockeytown as the Detroit Red Wings have started off the season with a 5-4 and 1 record. After winning the first 5 games of the year, the team has managed to score just 5 goals in the second 5 contests. On Tuesday night at the Joe, it was more of the same as Detroit went up 1-0 with a Nick Lidstrom goal 6 minutes into the 1st period. However after the goal, Detroit committed 9 penalties which in turn took their offense off the ice only to see the Wild score with one minute left in rugulation. In overtime, Johan Franzen was called for "goalkeeper interference" followed by a Mikko Koivu no call interference penalty on Nick Kronwall which eventually resulted in the game winner from Devin Setoguchi. I know this is stupid to say, however if the season were to end today, Detroit would miss the playoffs as they are currently residing in the 12th spot in the Western Conference.
So as the Wings prepared on Wednesday afternoon to try and end their skid as they get ready for the Flames, Mike Babcock announced that he was splitting up Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg while Lidstrom fielded questions about the lack of scoring and for that matter winning. Watch the videos below for all the details and make sure to look out for a bizarre mathematical equation that Babcock uses to illustrate just how bad the first ten games have gone. You tell me if you understand what he was trying to say?
