Detroit Red Wings: A Winning Roster Has Emerged. Now Don't Mess With It

For those of you old enough to remember "rabbit ears" TV antennas, the following analogy should be quite helpful.

For those of you completely confused by the concept of non-satellite, non-cable TV, I don't know, ask your parents about it.

Years ago, TV reception was something you could never take for granted.

Growing up, I don't remember how many hours were spent tilting, twisting, swiveling and collapsing the long, telescoping antennas that came out the back of our wooden, floor model TV set, but it was 100 if it was one.

Getting good reception became an art. It was a highly skilled activity that, in my house, only dad was fit to engage in.

A crystal clear transmission of The People's Court or Jeopardy was wholly dependent upon a very delicate configuration of two flimsy rods; the slight bump or movement of which resulted in a snow-covered Judge Wapner.

The Red Wings' game is looking really good right now, but, any twisting or tweaking of the lineup is likely to distort the picture, not to mention dash their playoff hopes.

On Thursday night, the Red Wings played a near perfect game against the visiting Minnesota Wild.

They delivered a solid, 60-minute effort (something they haven't been able to tune into but for a few times this season), dictated the pace of the action, and scored early and often en route to their 5-1 win.

They looked like the Red Wings we've been watching for the better part of two decades.

However, not 48 hours prior to this game, we had a pretty fuzzy view of a team that, at some points, resembled the Detroit Red Wings of old, but for the most part looked like a re-run of any number of games we'd like to forget this season.

With the eighth seed on the line, the Wings surrendered a 2-1 lead to the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night and dropped back down to ninth in the Western Conference playoff picture.

The Wings are 3-2 over their past five games.

And while a healthy Johan Franzen and seemingly rejuvenated Pavel Datsyuk are very important players to have going, the small tweak head coach Mike Babcock has made to the roster during this stretch has been enough to throw the Wings' game out of focus.

Namely, his decision to insert Jonathan Ericsson in lieu of Brett Lebda in two of the past five games.

With Andreas Lilja back from a year long, concussion-induced hiatus, and the top pairings of Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski, Niklas Kronwall, and Brad Stuart playing solid, if not inspired, hockey since the Olympic break, the sixth defenseman's spot has been the lone revolving door in the lineup this month.

It's time for Babcock to lock it up and, unfortunately, keep Brett Lebda inside and leave Jonathan Ericsson watching through the glass.

The big, rangy Swede has largely been a disappointment this year.  Ericsson has not been able to translate his brilliant playoff performance of a year ago into this, his first full regular season.

Now, long-term, I think Ericsson is much more in the Red Wings' plans than is Lebda.

In fact, I'd be surprised to see Lebda, a UFA this summer, back in Detroit in 2010-11.

Nevertheless, Detroit has gone 3-0 with Lebda as the sixth defenseman, and 0-2 with Ericsson in that position over the past five games.

On the face of it, this shouldn't be the case, as Ericsson has the size and offensive potential Lebda does not.

However, for now, Lebda and Lilja appear to make a better pairing than Ericsson and Lilja.

Much like when the picture on the TV suddenly became clear only when one antenna was at 45 degrees, the other at 90 degrees, and a piece of foil was wrapped around the bottom, the Wings seem to have found just the right combination of elements to make a solid push towards the playoffs.

With only 15 games remaining on the schedule, the Wings can ill-afford to tinker with a winning lineup.

Coach Babcock has done this twice in the past five games, and it cost them not only the games, but the eighth seed in the process.

That's how much a small roster change can hurt you when you're trying so hard to maintain consistency.

It's not as if Babcock was alternating between goalies, the most critical position in the game. No, in this case, a third defensive pair change-up seems to be the small, yet sufficient, nudge that turns the Wings' game to static.

This is not to put the blame for Detroit's sudden slip out of the playoff picture at the feet of Ericsson alone, hardly.

But, for whatever reason, the Wings have been winning with Lebda and losing with Ericsson.

When a pattern like this emerges at this critical time of the season, you don't ask why it happens, you just recognize it and go with it until it stops working.

Until evidence to the contrary arises, Brett Lebda should be the Wings' sixth defenseman.

And though they have three back-to-backs the rest of the way, Jimmy Howard should not be removed from the Detroit goal.

The urge to get Osgood some playing time (though clearly not something that is gnawing at Babcock) down the stretch cannot outweigh the team's commitment to win as many games as possible in hopes that it will be enough to get into the playoffs.

The time for tinkering is over.

For the time being, we have identified a winning lineup and should not disrupt it.

Coach Babcock, leave the foil on the left antenna and point the right one towards the couch.  Every time you do this, the picture looks better.