Hurricanes
Canes trying to add to Detroit's slide
Published: 2012-03-24 17:15:28
Updated: 2012-03-24 17:15:28
Mar 24, 2012
Detroit — The Detroit Red Wings will try to avoid their longest losing streak in over two decades when they host the Carolina Hurricanes tonight at Joe Louis Arena.
The Red Wings are 0-4-2 in their last six games, matching an 0-5-1 stretch from Oct. 22-Nov. 3 for the club's longest slide this season. However, the last time Detroit went seven games without a win was from Dec. 18-31, 1998, when it was 0-6 with a tie and the Wings haven't lost seven straight tilts since Jan. 14-30, 1991.
More Hurricanes Stories
The last time the Hurricanes won a regular-season game in the Motor City was on Nov. 14, 1989, when they were still known as the Hartford Whalers. Carolina did record a 3-2 overtime win in Detroit in Game 1 of the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals, but the Red Wings still won that series in five games.
Carolina, which is seven points out of a playoff spot in the East with seven games left, had won four straight before getting slammed in Columbus on Friday to start a three-game road trip. R.J. Umberger netted a hat trick to lead the Blue Jackets to a 5-1 victory over the Hurricanes at Nationwide Arena.
Drayson Bowman tallied the lone goal for the Hurricanes, while Cam Ward was tagged for all five goals on 26 shots in defeat.
Carolina, which will close this swing in Toronto on Tuesday, is just 11-17-9 as the guest this season.
Tonight's test marks the lone meeting this season between the Red Wings and Hurricanes. Carolina ended a three-game slide in the series with a 3-0 home win on April 6 of last season. Detroit has claimed two straight encounters at the Joe and the Red Wings are 14-0-0 with a tie in their last 15 tests as the host in this series.
Despite the slide, the Red Wings enter today with a one-point lead over Nashville and Chicago for the fourth seed in the Western Conference.
In addition to six straight losses, the Red Wings have also dropped eight of nine and 11 of their last 14 contests.
Injuries have been a big concern for Detroit lately, but head coach Mike Babcock didn't want to give into frustration after his team's loss on Wednesday.
"I don't think it's frustrating at all," Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said of his injury-ravaged club failing to win. "It would have been the nice to get the second point. We had our opportunities, especially in the last minutes of the game. In the end, we didn't get 'er done."
The Red Wings hope to get some relief in the injury department tonight, as captain Nicklas Lidstrom and fellow defenseman Jakub Kindl could both return this evening. Lidstrom has sat out the last 11 games with a bone bruise in his right ankle, but he has been practicing and is questionable for tonight. Kindl has sat out eight straight tests with a strained oblique muscle and is also day-to-day.
Detroit is also without key skaters like Jonathan Ericsson, Johan Franzen and Darren Helm due to various injuries and the club's top-two goaltenders -- Jimmy Howard and Joey MacDonald -- are currently on the shelf as well. Conklin will likely be called upon for another start tonight, while rookie Jordan Pearce will serve as the backup. Pearce has never seen action in an NHL game, while the veteran Conklin was recalled on an emergency basis from Grand Rapids of the AHL earlier this week.
The Red Wings are 28-5-2 as the host this season, but have dropped four of their last six games at the Joe.
Copyright 2013 by The Sports Network. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Most Recent Comments
RE: Canes trying to add to Detroit's slide
Columbus did not end our season. We did that to ourselves a long time ago. We can go back and look at all of the "what ifs" but that is not going to fix anything now. I hope the team is looking forward at the "what cans".
What can we do for next year and the future to never let that kind of start happen again? What can we do to improve our OT and SO? What can we do to improve scoring? What can we do to improve defense? I know these questions seem obvious, but all of them need to be addressed if we are going to move forward.
One good thing about this season is that we showed that we can beat any team in the league on any given night. (of course we showed that we can be beaten by any team on any given night as well) Muller and his coaching staff are probably the best thing that has happened to this team in a long time. Hopefully we can keep that group together and the core group of young talent and young veterans together.
If we can do that and add a couple more players. I think we will be amazing next year. Of course, we can have all of the hopes in the world, but the team out their on the ice and the coaches behind the bench are the ones that have to do the work.
The most important thing that has to happen is that PK (with the rest of the minority owners) needs to pony up and give JR the money to go after some top tier players.
RE: Canes trying to add to Detroit's slide
As terrible as they looked last night, I'm not looking forward to this game.
Who'd have guessed Columbus would be the team to end our season? Sheesh.
Rank: Pro 
