REDWINGS SHUT OUT 3-0 BY LIGHTNING.
Mike Babcock succinctly summed up what it’s going to take for his team to pull out of their current slump.
“We’ve got to score,” the coach of the Detroit Red Wings said after a 3-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning Sunday at Joe Louis, extending Detroit’s winless skid to five games.
The Wings have scored two goals or fewer in each of those five games, totaling five goals over that span, and have now been held to two or less in 19 of 35 games this season. Detroit is 3-9-2-5 in those contests.
Third-period goals by Tyler Johnson, J.T. Brown and Alex Killorn gave the Lightning the win, while Ben Bishop turned aside 28 shots for his third shutout of the season.
Luck also wasn’t on Detroit’s side. Gustav Nyquist tallied in the first period, but the goal was waved off by referee Paul Devorski, who’d blown his whistle even though it was clear that Bishop had not covered the puck.
“It was a tough call on the no goal,” Babcock said. “It obviously was a goal.
“Obviously we’re more challenged offensively with our lineup, but there’s no sense whining or feeling sorry for yourself. We’ve got to find a way to win a game.”
The scary notion for Detroit is that things could get worse before they get better. Already minus captain Henrik Zetterberg (back injury), their second-leading goal scorer with 11, the Wings lost the man who’s third on the list with nine goals, right-winger Johan Franzen to a head injury suffered in a second-period collision with Lightning defenceman Radko Gudas.
“It’s all those guys who get bumped in the head,” Babcock said. “You know what it’s like in the league now. “They’re gone forever.” In Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, left-winger Justin Abdelkader was lost to a suspected concussion after being elbowed in the head by Penguins defenceman Deryk Engelland.
Tomas Jurco made his NHL debut Sunday for Detroit, skating on a line with Pavel Datsyuk and Daniel Alfredsson.
“All those injuries helped me to get called up,” Jurco said. “I was just trying to do my best in the AHL and luckily for me, those injuries gave me a chance to play.”