Detroit Red Wings: Henrik Zetterberg & Pavel Datsyuk to Blame for Losing Streak

If there's one good thing about the Detroit Red Wings being mired in a ghastly four-game losing streak to end the first month of the NHL season, it's that it is just the first month of the NHL season.

After starting the year red-hot, amassing an impressive 5-0 record, the Red Wings have more or less fallen apart since then.

Their sound defensive game, so often absent last season, was starting to look as if it had returned for an extended stay for the 2011-12 campaign.

So far, it looks like it was just visiting Detroit on its way to parts unknown.

Their trademark offensive wizardry was clicking up and down the depth chart; a key to success in this league.

Of late, the only "clicking" going on for the Red Wings is the sound of a trigger trying to ignite an empty chamber.

As good as the Red Wings looked to start the month, is about as bad as they look now, to end it.

The question quite reasonable comes, why has this team suddenly forgotten how to win?

Well, it may be anathema to suggest the answer is that Detroit's two best players are the reason, but I've never been one to back away from an opportunity to open myself wide open to scoff and criticism.

I submit that the core of Detroit's problems the past four games have been Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk.

We'll get to why this is the case in a second, but, for a moment consider the fact that these two men aren't simply Detroit's best players, but their most important players.

This means that what they do, good or bad, is usually going to have a bigger impact on the team than the same actions performed by any other player.

They play the most significant minutes, are trusted in the most critical situations and have a talent and skill set their teammates do not possess.

Typically, they do very good things with all of these, but they haven't done so of late.

Zetterberg has had a very slow start to the season, tallying just three points in nine games.

While his defensive game is usually one of the best among forwards in the league, that has been equally suspect so far this year.

Zetterberg is a minus-four and has been frequently beaten in puck battles in his own zone as well as in the faceoff circle.

While Datsyuk leads the team in points, a whopping seven total (two G, 5A) in nine games, he also is a team-worst minus-five.

This is a hard thing to believe considering he's won the Selke Trophy for the league's best defensive-forward three out of the last for years.

He too has looked uncharacteristically "beatable" defensively and has made questionable decisions with the puck, seemingly, for the first time in his career.

Now, if you want to argue that sputtering offense and lackluster defensive are problems that can be applied to an array of Detroit players, I won't tell you you're wrong.

However, there is only one Zetterberg and only one Datsyuk in Detroit, and when they start looking as bad as the rest of the team, you know there's a serious problem at hand.

Simply put, as go Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, so go the Detroit Red Wings.

So it is not surprising to see that during an ugly four-game streak that has seen the team give up goals in bunches and score very few in return, their two best players have combined for four points and minus-12 over that same stretch.

The Wings know they've got to right what has become a tilting ship.

As soon as No. 40 and No. 13 do the same thing individually, the Detroit Red Wings will be in for much smoother sailing.

Follow Matt on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MAhutter12