Defending the Cup: Game 30

Defending the Cup, You're Doing it Wrong: Last night may have been the worst team performance Detroit has put on all season. The squad that won the Cup by playing an incredibly cohesive and sacrificial team game looked like a group of individuals out there against Colorado.

Their 20-6-4 record belies a group of players with their heads up their collective rear ends. In July, I wrote that I thought the Wings' chances of a Cup hangover were "slim."

This team is too well-coached and too focused for that. They certainly aren't counting their chickens before they're hatched, you can bet on it.

The team has proven me wrong to this point in the season. For most other teams, their level of play would be acceptible, but for a team looking to repeat, they are not playing up to snuff. For now, they seem content to coast through the season on offensive talent almost exclusively. Last night's performance, in which they outshot the Avs 36 to 27, was just one example of how that strategy is failing.

This is a Red Wings squad that seems to be paying the least attention to detail defensively of any team I can remember. They are careless in their own end, making sloppy passes and weak clearing attempts. They get caught standing at center frequently and play poorly without the puck in their opponents' end. Even someone as historically consistent as Nicklas Lidstrom looks shockingly human this season. Players who have every reason to fight to keep their roster spots, such as Brett Lebda, are making rookie mistakes like covering the puck with their hand in the crease.

Colorado was a team the Wings should have trounced. Instead, they fell behind 2-0 in the first five minutes and never really seemed capable of making a comeback. Some people are calling this a coaching problem, and while a decent argument can be made that the loss of Todd MacLellan as defensive coach has had a major impact, I think blame for the team's malaise falls on the shoulders of the players. They just aren't getting it done.

It Starts with Goaltending: Chris Osgood is 12-2-4 this season. Sounds like a great record, right? When you look at his other stats, you get a better idea of what kind of performances he's putting on: .876 save-percentage and 3.19 goals-against average. Osgood is quite simply not playing the kind of hockey that put him in Conn Smythe contention during the playoffs.

Granted, he's not getting the kind of defensive support he received during the Cup run, but he's not making the saves either. He lets in a soft goal or two a game and can't seem to hold a team to fewer than 3 goals to save his life. During the postseason, Osgood's confidence and calmness spread to the rest of the team. This season, they obviously do not trust him to make a save.

Ty Conklin has a better rep in Detroit at the moment, but to be honest, he hasn't been great either.

On Shuffle: Mike Babock, in a so-far vain attempt at getting his team's attention, has thrown the lines in a blender. They started with Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom skating on Henrik Zetterberg's wings, but finished the game with Marian Hossa taking Holmstrom's place on the top line. Holmstrom was bumped down to the second line with Johan Franzen and Dan Cleary, in an apparent attempt to muscle the puck into the net.

Hossa and Holmstrom both scored last night, but I'd rate the changes as marginally successful at best.

Standard Practice: One of the most frustrating things about the Wings is their tendency to make average goalies look like Vezina candidates. Last night's assault on Andrew Raycroft was no exception. To be sure, Raycroft was sharp, but so many of the Wings' shots were bad angle, unscreened, and slow that a couch cushion could have stopped them.

HossaWatch: Hossa netted his 16th goal of the season last night. He continues to produce, but has not been the same dynamic and exciting player he was at the start of the season. The team's collective funk has descended on him as well.

Shock Treatment: Thursday night, the Wings face the San Jose Sharks, a team that is truly firing on all cylinders. Last night, they made NHL history by posting the best record through 30 games (25-3-2). Detroit has already lost to the Sharks this season, and barring a total change in attitude, are poised to do so again. I hate to say it, but a bad loss to the Sharks may be what it takes to shock the team back into its 2007-2008 form.

On the Economy: The Denver Posts' Adrian Dater has a short piece on the Wings' perspective on the economy here in Michigan, which is no overstatement to describe as on the brink of disaster. You have to believe that the Red Wings' management is nervously keeping an eye on financial and business news as they cross their fingers in hopes that Detroit doesn't become surrounded by a ring of suburban ghosttowns in the relatively near future.

After years of speculating on the possible folding of financially-trouble franchises in bad markets around the NHL, it's definitely unsettling as a Wings fan to be forced to ponder the future of the hometeam.