From Dominating at Home, Detroit Red Wings Struggling in JLA

Detroit Red Wingswon a National Hockey League record of 23 straight home games this season and after setting that record, the Red Wings floundered. After sitting at the top of the Western Conference for quite some time, the boys from Joe Louis Arena have now lost three straight games and their record-setting home streak ended. Owners of Detroit Red Wings tickets certainly got surprised by their first home loss since November 3 and it also did not help that the team lost another home game following the streak-snapping defeat.

Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

The Red Wings was really on a high spirit after they won their 23^rd straight game on their home ice on February 19. Having some kind of momentum in their matchup versus division rival Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit was confident that they can win their seventh straight game overall. The team lost the game, 1-2, which put their road record to 15-16-1 and their then six-game winning streak ended. The loss certainly took a toll to the team on their next two home games.

The Pavel Datsyuk-less team’s next matchup was against the reigning Western Conference champs Vancouver Canucks. As expected, the game went down to the wire as the final score was decided by a shootout. Canucks entered the game as the best team on the road this season and they certainly proved it by ending the home streak of the Red Wings to 23. During the shootout, Alex Burrows of the Canucks was the only player to score a goal and that made a difference to the game. Detroit lost 3-4 and the home streak ended in a dramatic fashion.

After suffering a stinging defeat at home, the Red Wings looked to regroup and win their 24^thgame in the past 25 games in Joe Louis Arena with a matchup versus conference foe Colorado Avalanche. Their previous defeat however proved to be a big one for the Red Wings as they lost the game, 3-4, and suddenly the team is now talking about poor play rather than domination. The loss to the Avalanche was their first regulation defeat at home since November 3.

Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

From being a dominant team at home for most of the season, the team now find themselves in a losing streak that no one has imagined after they set the record. Detroit previously had a two-game losing streak at home on November 1 and November 3.

During the team’s three-game losing streak, Detroit has missed the services of their star player Datsyuk who underwent an arthroscopic surgery on February 21 to remove the fragments from his right knee. He is expected to miss at least two weeks and this could really be very costly for the team. Being the team’s leading scorer at 59 points, any game missed by Datsyuk could be critical.

Detroit made some player moves this past week after trading defenseman Mike Commodore to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a 2013 seventh round pick. The team also re-signed 37-year-old forward Todd Bertuzzi for a two-year contract worth a little over $4 million.

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