Detroit Red Wings Will Make Playoffs for 20th Straight Year, but Won't Get Far

Let's get something straight right off the hop: this isn't some Chicken Little, knee-jerk reaction to the Red Wings' recent evisceration on home ice at the hands of the St. Louis Blues.

Losing a game 10-3 on home ice is akin to living through some horrific childhood trauma—it's so bad, you can't even remember it.

As such, I've already forgotten about it.

No, the reason I'm down in the mouth about the Red Wings, and the reason why I can almost guarantee that they're destined to be a first-round ego-boost for whichever team ends up beating them in seven games, goes back a lot farther than Wednesday night.

Save for the first 20 games of this season, the Red Wings have been on a roller coaster ride of inconsistency.

They win two, lose three, win four, lose four; never really catching fire, and never really fizzling out.

It's been a season of relative mediocrity for a team that was supposed to rise high above the rest of the NHL pack.

This isn't going to change in two weeks.

Again, recent history (the Wings are just .500 over their past 10 games) can back up my assertion that this team is not long for this particular season, but it's the last several months that provide the real proof that this team just isn't ready to win this season.

The Red Wings' tendencies toward turnovers, unemotional play, bad starts and long lapses in concentration began appearing regularly in mid-November, and have remained with the team ever since.

It is the groove they've gotten themselves into and have only made deeper as time has gone on.

One could argue that going through their second straight year of terrible injury problems (the Wings have lost key players like Pavel Datsyuk, Brian Rafalski, Chris Osgood, Brad Stuart and Mike Modano for long stretches of time this year) is to blame for their up and down season.

This is a contributing factor, to be sure. However, the problems detailed above remain even when the team is in relatively good health.

I cannot offer an explanation as to why this team has gradually lost its ability to win, or even compete, on a regular basis, so I'm not going to try.

But, it is because I've followed this team for decades that I can emphatically state the following: I know a winner when I see one, and this team is not a winner.

"How can you say something so stupid?" you might ask.

"After all, we don't even know who they will face in the first round!"

True, we don't, but I'm telling you it doesn't matter. This team will beat itself as it has for most of its losses this season.

I can give you the evidence.

Nicklas Lidstrom is minus-4.

Henrik Zetterberg is minus-3.

Quibble with the value of the plus/minus stat if you will, but if you were to examine that column next to any other team's top two defensive players, you'd argue that they're not exactly that.

Johan Franzen is invisible.

Over the past 20 or so games, I wonder if he's a healthy-scratch halfway through because I rarely see No. 93 come into view on my TV screen, and that's a tough trick to pull off on a 58" HD monitor.

Franzen's peripheral play for most of this season has drastically limited this production to the point that he will almost personally guarantee that Detroit will end the year without a 30-goal scorer.

Now, if you're a Red Wings fan, you're likely waiting for me to mention the goaltending as the most glaring problem in Detroit.

Blaming the goalie is treasured tradition in Detroit, after all, and when this team has underperformed in the past, the blame has almost always been laid at the skates of whichever poor soul happened to be in net at the time.

I'm not going there.

Yes, Jimmy Howard's stats are pedestrian at best, but, he's been hung out to dry more times this season than a bathing suit in summertime.

The Red Wings 226 goals against, worst among all playoff-bound teams, is a team-wide point of shame and cannot be blamed on goal-tending alone.

The Red Wings lose as they win—as a team.

Why is this the case? Why have the Red Wings become one of the more porous defensive teams in the league? Why have they repeatedly let games slip through their fingers? Why have they been unable to sustain any consistent work ethic through 77 games?

I don't know.

All I know is that these are the facts, and the facts don't lie—the Red Wings may be headed to the playoffs, but are destined for an early summer.

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