Detroit Red Wings: Still Time to Turn Page on April Fools' Joke That Was March

The Detroit Red Wings should be hoping that this April Fools' Day marks the beginning of a turnaround for the team after the month of March amounted to little more than a joke.

The Red Wings will look to do something Thursday night against the Boston Bruins that they didn't do a lot of in the month of March.

Win a hockey game.

With a 5-8-2 record in March, the Wings aren't exactly coasting into the playoffs. Though Detroit's goaltending has been hit or miss over the past month, it is abundantly clear with 47 goals given up in those 14 games that the Wings haven't really bought in to the concept of team defense either.

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Frankly, the team looked like a big April Fools' Day joke in a fair number of games last month, and the Wings can't afford to do that for any of the remaining six April contests.

Looking to lock up the franchise's 24th consecutive playoff appearance, the Red Wings simply need to play a full 60-minute hockey game against the Bruins, who will be fighting to move into a tie in points with the Red Wings with a regulation win tomorrow night.

But Detroit hasn't been able to put together many 60-minute performances this past month. After going 64 games without back-to-back regulation losses, the Wings' eight regulation losses in 15 March games quickly ended that feat.

The Wings have been squandering points in bunches over the past month. Here are some examples:

Game	Result	Point(s) squandered
Calgary, March 6	5-2 loss	2 points, blew 2-0 lead in first period.
Columbus, March 12	3-1 loss	2 points, blew 1-0 lead in first period.
Tampa Bay, March 20	3-1 loss	At least 1 point, Tampa scored midway in 3rd period to break tie.
NY Islanders, March 29	5-4 loss	2 points, blew 2-0 lead, didn't even force overtime.
Ottawa, March 31	2-1 loss	1 point, lost in a shootout after giving up tying goal.

If the Red Wings had picked up half of the points listed in that above table, they'd likely have clinched a playoff spot or be in a position to do so with a win on Thursday against the Bruins. The worst part about the above table is, that table doesn't even take into consideration some of the sloppy defensive games that the Red Wings took part in.

But March is done. The madness that usually encompasses March basketball but represented the Red Wings' style of hockey over the past month is hopefully also done.

The Wings just need to get healthy and play settled, smart hockey.

If they can play that way, they will prove that their performance in March was by far the biggest April Fools' joke in the NHL.