Red Wings-Coyotes: Tonight's Matchup Against Phoenix a Statement Game

Honestly, if you'd read that headline before the start of the season, you'd be reading this article because you wanted a laugh.

A title like that was something you'd see in the sports section of The Onion .

However, this assertion is now uncomfortably true.

Tonight's game is indeed an opportunity for the Red Wings to make a statement.

The Wing's record after seven games is 3-3-1 and they currently sit fourth in the Central Division.

The last time Detroit had this bad a start, none of their current players were even on the roster.

The Wings have shown the rest of the league that, this season, they are a team that can be beat, and what's more, a team that will help you beat them.

Aside from a 6-2 drubbing by the Buffalo Sabres, each of the Wings' losses have come as the result of surrendering two-goal leads.

There was a time, not too long ago, that a two-goal lead by Detroit meant lights out for the opposition.

Be it in the first few minutes of the game or the start of the third period, if Detroit had a lead on you, the best thing to do was to try your best to keep the score respectable so as not to make your inevitable loss more embarrassing than it had to be.

Winning, for Detroit, was merely a habit.

But, those days, at least for now, are gone.

Surrendering a two-goal lead en route to a loss has become habitual for Detroit.

Giveaways, mental lapses, soft goals, and bad line changes have become common place for the Red Wings.

They have, by their own hands, turned a record which should have been 6-1 into an unremarkable .500.

The Coyotes, on the other hand, have a very respectable 5-2 record, surrendering a paltry 10 goals in those seven games.

This is a start no one in the NHL would have predicted and one the Red Wings would be thrilled with if it were their's.

One has to believe that the Coyotes began the season with an "us against the world" mentality.

For all of the embarrassment surrounding this franchise over the summer, the players have admirably risen above it all and have come out of the gate as a team on a mission.

Not only have the Coyotes built a winning record, they've beaten the best while doing it.

Phoenix has kept two of the most explosive offensive teams in the league off the board so far this year; beating San Jose and Pittsburgh by a combined score of 4-0.

Again, that's something the Wings' would love to have had accomplished in the early going, but have done nothing close.

Now, I'm sure Phoenix still views a win over Detroit as a special thing, but the monumental nature of such a feat has greatly diminished this year.

A win over Detroit is worth mentioning to someone within earshot, but no longer something to write home about.

The Wings still have time to regain their form this season, and tonight is a perfect opportunity to start down that path.

Tonight they can prove that they still belong amongst the likes of San Jose and Pittsburgh by doing what they could not: score against the Coyotes.

This game is the first in a long, five-game, eleven-day road trip.

This game will set the tone for the rest of the trip.

A solid win over Phoenix will give Detroit the evidence they so desperately need right now that they are capable of breaking some bad habits.

However, another loss, and particularly the kind they've gift wrapped so far this season, will provide evidence to the contrary.

It seems ridiculous to consider any game in the regular season as a "must-win," especially when it's the eighth of 82.

But tonight's game is no joke.

The Wings desperately need a win if they plan to once again make winning a habitual thing.