Red Wings Slump Continues

Watching the Wings 3-2 loss last night against the San Jose Sharks was just downright depressing. With last night’s result, the Red Wings have won only one (one!!!) game in their last eleven games…ugh. As the Associated Press notes, the Red Wings haven’t had a slump this bad since the fall of 1989 when they had a 12 game losing streak.

The AP story pretty much covers the whole situation…injuries continue to be a problem with many of veterans including Captain Nicklas Lidstrom, Dan Cleary and Chris Chelios out of the lineup…even the long-serving Red Wings television announcer (and former Detroit Red Wing) Mickey Redmond has been out of the broadcast booth recovering from surgery.

Some bad luck is also to blame. As one of the Shark’s goals came immediately after hitting the protective webbing behind the goal…a play that should have been whistled dead immediately and the goal not allowed. Unfortunately the officials didn’t get it right and allowed the goal, which ended up being the game winner. I generally don’t have any complaints about officiating in the NHL…frankly they usually get it right most of the time. However, it is frustrating when they got it so wrong and it potentially ended up costing the Wings a game…or even a much needed point if they could have forced the game into overtime. I guess these are the breaks a team on the slump has to go through. The Red Wings still have a three point lead over the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference which is something to build on but they need to get healthy and get back on track as the playoffs will be here before we know it.