No Panic For Red Wings As They Try To Snap Out Of Funk
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - With less than a month remaining in the regular season, the Detroit Red Wings have dropped three of their last four games, and head coach Mike Babcock has seen enough.
"We didn't look like we got a ton of energy, we're not playing with much pace," Babcock said Friday. "Those things happen, but you've got to make them short when they do happen, and to me, we've let this go too long. It's time to dig in and get playing."
This season has been much smoother than the previous one, when injuries ravaged the roster. An impressive 9-3 run in January helped put the Red Wings comfortably in the playoff conversation, but since then the team has swung back and forth between win streaks and losing streaks. The funk the Red Wings currently find themselves in is one the coach is eager to escape.
"A little adversity never killed anybody, but when you get it, you want to get through it as fast as you can," Babcock said.
"You've got to be careful in this league what you wish for because you think you've got things going good and the next thing you know you don't have them going very good, so the bottom line is it's a fine line between winning and losing. We had her going pretty good, were feeling pretty good about ourselves; now we don't have the same amount of energy and execution that we did, and so you've got to be mentally strong and find a way to get it back."
Defenseman Kyle Quincey admitted there is a level of concern about how the team has been playing. Babcock noted there is certainly urgency. Stronger than both those sentiments appears to be team's belief it has what is needed to get through the current rough patch.
"There's no panic, that's for sure," goaltender Jimmy Howard said. "Every day in here it's business as usual, which is good. We try and keep that even keel in this dressing room of not being too high and not being too low, and we try to stay away from that roller coaster ride which we seem to be on right now. We've just got to just come in and just play and forget about what's transpired over the last couple of games and just remember and get that feeling back of when we were playing good hockey."
Center Darren Helm seconded Howard's assertion that no one is too worried at this point.
"A lot of teams go through this, but we've got a core group, a veteran group in here that's seen pretty much it all, so they're keeping things calm and loose and keeping everybody motivated and moving in the right direction to try to get back in track," center Darren Helm said. "I don't think there's too much panic in the room. I think guys want to play harder and win games, but it's guys keeping us calm and knowing that it's going to happen. We've just got to turn it around."
