5 Keys for Wings to Snap Losing Streak

The Detroit Red Wings started their 2011-12 season with five straight wins, including two shutouts. Since then, they've been on a four-game losing streak and outscored by their opponents 16-4. 

What has caused the Wings to start with a strong season and suddenly end up in a slump? Their defense cannot stop the puck and their offense cannot score. 

There are five keys for the Red Wings to break themselves out of this losing streak and back on to the road of winning their way to the top of the Central division.

Penalty Killing

In the last four games, four of the 16 shots scored against them were on power plays. It was determined earlier this season that how the Red Wings fare this year will be based on their penalty killing. Two of the games, the opponent scored first on a power play, giving them momentum.

The Red Wings need to kill the opponent's power play early and limit the use of ill-timed penalties. They have committed 52 penalty minutes in the last four games alone. They need to limit the penalties.

If they are spending too much time on the ice trying to kill a penalty, they'll never be able to gain the momentum to get the offense to score.

Star "Minus" Players

Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk both have a combined plus-minus statistic of minus-nine. Granted, sometimes these statistics are not very useful in determining how good a defensive player is, but it's surprising to see them on the minus side.

Nicklas Lidstrom, captain of the team, has a minus two. Coach Babcock has stated he was afraid his veteran-laden team were slipping into cruise control as of late. He sees his star players with sluggish starts in the games and are unable to perform well on the ice.

These star players need to start doing what they were doing best at the beginning of the season: scoring and assisting goals.

They need to turn these stats into pluses.

Creating Chances...But Nothing Gained

One of the things the Red Wings have been able to do the last four games was to create lots of chances on the other side of the ice and create scoring opportunities-only to have zero or few goals. The Wings have an average of 33 shots for the last four games.

While they are shooting enough, apparently, they don't have enough players shooting enough. Johan Franzen, the player with the most points on the team, only has one shot on goal in the last four games. Dan Cleary, a player that was expected to perform well on the line with Datsyuk, only has 10 shots on goal in the last six games. 

They are not scoring enough, especially on the power plays. They need to figure out a way to change these created opportunities into a created goal.

Conklin in Da Funk

Ty Conklin had a great start to the season against the Avalanche by shutting them out in their home opener. In his last two starts, he has had ten goals scored against him.

Apparently, Coach Babcock didn't trust him enough to believe that Conklin will come out of the funk he put himself in and started Jimmy Howard back instead. However, Howard cannot start the rest of the games. Conklin, though it's only been three games, proved that he's not a consistent backup goalie.

He needs to get himself out of the funk and be the reliable back-up the Red Wings need him to be. If he can step up at the goal, hopefully it will encourage his teammates to step up to score.

Conklin needs to find confidence and be the better goalie he proved to be during the offseason.

Only the Beginning

The Wings are on a four-game losing streak but there is no reason to truly fret. It is still the beginning of the season, it is young. They have plenty of time to figure out how to get out of this losing slump and play like the team they are.

The veterans need to break out of the cruise control motion they are on and start scoring. They need to limit their penalties. Also, they need to play with more urgency and control.

They need to regain their confidence and climb their way back from third to first in their division. Thankfully, the season is still young and let's hope the Red Wings snap this losing streak soon.

They need to re-discover the defense they had in the 5-0 start this season. They need to re-discover their offense and start scoring.

The Red Wings need to start being themselves again.