DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings only earned 3 of 10 possible points from their 5-game western road trip to start the new year.
The trip ended Thursday night with a 5-2 loss in Dallas. The Wings will return to Detroit this weekend to host to the Pittsburgh Penguins Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.
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Here's how the road trip went (not well):
Jan. 4 -- 2-0 loss in Anaheim
The Anaheim Ducks shut out the Red Wings in what would seem like an otherwise tight game -- shots were 24-23 in Anaheim's slight favor. However, neither team could score on the power play and that proved to be the difference for the Red Wings who had to split the season series with the Ducks, 1-1.
Jan. 5 -- 4-0 win in Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Kings outshot the Red Wings 34-22 (and yes, shots is a crazy misleading statistic), but the Red Wings were opportunistic in this one. Anthony Mantha scored a goal and an assist while Thomas Vanek potted 2 goals. Things were looking up.
Jan. 7 -- 6-3 loss in San Jose
And things continued to look good when Thomas Vanek put the Red Wings up 1-0 in the 1st period against the Sharks ... but then it all went south from there. The Sharks were up 3-1 by the end of the opening period. Detroit goalie Jared Coreau was pulled and replaced by Ptr Mrazek, which seemed to have no effect on the game: It was 5-1 before fans returned to their seats in the 3rd period. San Jose appeared to be scoring at will. And for the record: Shots were 35-35. Moving on.
Jan. 10 -- 4-3 OT loss in Chicago
The Red Wings played some of their best hockey of the season in Chicago, and it was still only good enough for an overtime loss. It was 2-0 Blackhawks after the 1st period, but Detroit stormed back with two of their own in the 2nd. Chicago grabbed back the lead late in the 2nd, and the Red Wings tied it with just 19 seconds left before the intermission. The Red Wings kept the Blackhawks scoreless in the 3rd period -- very exciting hockey, indeed. But then there was the dagger Chicago was looking for: Justin Abdelkader committed an untimely mental error when he boarded Niklas Hjalmarsson 200 feet from the Red Wings goal. Duncan Keith made no mistake with a snipe to end it during the 4-on-3 power play in overtime.
Jan. 12 -- 5-2 loss in Dallas
Simply put: The Dallas Stars scored 5 goals on 21 shots. That's after Detroit went up 2-1 in the 1st period. The 2nd period has been described as "sloppy" and "disastrous" for the Red Wings. And there is no doubt it was. Really, those are words to describe the game and trip overall for the Red Wings.
Uphill from here
The Red Wings are coming home to face the Stanley Cup-defending Penguins, one of the premier teams in the league. And that's followed by a game against Montreal, then Boston, Buffalo ... etc.
Detroit's playoff hopes are all but dashed as they sit 8 points out of a playoff spot.
Here's what Henrik Zetterberg had to say:
"We know that we're shooting ourselves in the foot and you can't do that if you want to get points every night." | #DETvsDAL pic.twitter.com/bBmMx2YtGz
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) January 13, 2017
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