Red Wings fans given yet another case of late-season heartburn

The Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Pistons seem to be in a battle to see which team can make their fans the angriest in the shortest period of time.

With both teams trying to hold on to the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot, they have spent the last several days laying down major claims on the worst possible defeat.

The Red Wings got things started on Sunday, losing 1-0 at home to the hapless Toronto Maple Leafs – a team that is more interesting in winning the draft lottery than victories on the ice.

Not to be outdone, the Pistons came back Monday with an epic performance of their own, falling behind 30-7 in the first quarter en route to a 43-point loss to the Washington Wizards.

That put down a marker that the Red Wings were going to struggle to match. A hockey team can’t lose a game by 43 points, and they certainly can’t fall behind by 23 in the first period.

They gave it everything they could, though. Detroit went into the Wells Fargo Center Tuesday night to play the Flyers – the team trying to knock them out of the second wild-card spot – and promptly laid a giant egg.

Philadelphia outshot them 23-3 in the first period, and only several big saves by Petr Mrazek kept them within 2-0.

How could the Red Wings, trying to keep their playoff streak alive for a 25th season, play that badly in what might have been the biggest game of the year? Henrik Zetterberg said the team was stunned by Philadelphia’s first goal, which saw Michael Raffl simply blow past Kyle Quincey before beating Mrazek.

Henrik Zetterberg was disappointed with the team’s play last night. (Photo by: Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire)

“I thought the sense of urgency was there for the first five minutes, but that first goal really put us back on our heels,” he said on the FOX Sports Detroit postgame show. “It took us until the second period to fight our way back into the game.”

The Red Wings did make it close in the final two periods, outshooting the Flyers 34-23, but there were too many defensive breakdowns. Detroit scored twice in the second period, getting goals from Andreas Athanasiou and Pavel Datsyuk, but gave both of them right back.

Raffl got his second of the game when Brendan Smith couldn’t clear a rebound, and Shayne Gostisbehere’s centering pass deflected off Danny DeKeyser’s knee and past Mrazek to make it 4-2 late in the period. It was the second goal where DeKeyser had been at fault, after he lost Wayne Simmonds in front of the net when the Flyers had gone up 2-0.

We were carrying the play for large stretches of the second period, but we kept giving away chances for nothing, and we can’t keep doing that,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “We didn’t stay resilient after their first goal, and in the last two periods, I thought our defensemen just made too many unforced errors.”

“It just wasn’t good enough.”

Smith, DeKeyser and Alexey Marchenko all committed penalties – Smith had two – and while the Red Wings did kill off all six Flyers power plays, that’s a lot of time without chances to score. Detroit only had two power play chances of their own, and didn’t score on either shot they managed.

Tomas Tatar made it 4-3 in the third, but Steve Mason kept them from tying the game in the final moments.

The Red Wings remain at 79 points, but now lead the Flyers by only one point for the second wild card position. Detroit has 12 games left, while Philadelphia has 14 to play. The Penguins, who lead the Red Wings by three points, have 13 to go.

Now Detroit sports fans have to hope that one or both of their winter teams can do something to stop the bleeding. The Pistons, who have already fallen into ninth, get their first chance Wednesday against Atlanta, while the Red Wings visit Columbus on Thursday.

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