April 20, 2012; Nashville, TN, USA; Detroit Red Wings left wing Drew Miller (20) passes the puck past Nashville Predators left wing Gabriel Bourque (57) at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports

Instead, it was Shea Weber and the host Predators who had the last laugh. Nashville’s star blueliner dashed in to knock home a rebound of a Colin Wilson shot 44 seconds into overtime to help his team escape with a 4-3 win at Bridgestone Arena.

Already leading the NHL in man-games lost to injury by a wide margin, it looked like another one of those nights early on for the Red Wings. Defenseman Niklas Kronwall went back to the locker room after getting crunched along the boards, and Cory Emmerton was bloodied by a puck to the face. Both would return, but goaltender Jimmy Howard wasn’t as lucky, departing midway through the first period with an upper-body injury.

Jonas Gustavsson would take over, just back from his own ailment. Perhaps sensing that they would need to pick things up in front of their backup goalie, the Red Wings responded with tenacious forechecking and overall effort throughout a scoreless second period.

They finally broke through on a fortunate bounce at the 11:33 mark of the third. With Gustavsson already off for a sixth skater on a delayed penalty, Tootoo attempted a pass from right to left for Henrik Zetterberg. It deflected off a Nashville skate past a surprised Pekka Rinne instead, giving Tootoo his first goal as a Red Wing and knotting the game at 2-2.

The Predators got their own break just 1:21 later when Roman Josi‘s shot bounced off Joakim Andersson‘s stick for an unassisted goal. That’s when Datsyuk took matters into his own hands, going end-to-end and weaving his way through four Nashville skaters to even the score at 3-3 with 6:30 left in regulation.

Weber dashed any hopes of Detroit earning two points by scoring into a wide open net in the opening minutes of overtime. Craig Smith and Gabriel Bourque also scored for Nashville while staking their team to an early 2-0 lead, and Rine made 6 saves to pick up the victory.

Gustavsson was solid in his second appearance of 2013, sopping 16 of the 18 shots he faced. Howard gave up two goals on just seven shots before he was forced to leave. Dan Cleary scored Detroit’s first goal, a shorthanded effort set up brilliantly by Datsyuk in the first period.

The wounded Red Wings will limp back home to Joe Louis Arena on Thursday night to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets, attempting to halt what is now a four-game losing streak. Detroit has back-to-back home games this weekend against Nashville and the Vancouver Canucks.

The game was over when…

The Wings didn’t come out in overtime with quite the same intensity for the extra period that they showed in the previous two. Even though he’s off to a slow goal-scoring start, you always have to account for Weber. A failure to do so meant a great effort was only worth one point.

The unsung Red Wings hero was…

How it could not be Gustavsson? The guy hasn’t played since opening night, gets called into action suddenly and almost immediately comes under fire from Weber. He wasn’t sensational, but he played well, and there wasn’t much he could do about either goal he allowed.

January 25, 2013; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Red Wings right wing Daniel Cleary (11) tries to score on Minnesota Wild goalie Josh Harding (37) in the third period at Joe Louis Arena. Detroit won 5-3. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

After finally starting to look like the hockey team we all know and love, the Detroit Red Wings have come back down to Earth, losing two games in a row and allowing nine goals against in the process. At 6:00 tonight they will look to reverse this slump against the Minnesota Wild, who have also lost their past two games.

Friday’s loss against the Anaheim Ducks was ugly, especially allowing two goals in 48 seconds during the third period, but it’s important to note that an entire powerplay line – Joakim Andersson, Tomas Tatar, and Gustav Nyquist – belonged to the Griffins no more than five games ago. It’s also important to remember the absences of Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen, and Todd Bertuzzi (Detroit’s entire first line last year) among the forward corps.

The sad thing is, none of these players look to be returning anytime soon, with the possible exception of Datsyuk, who will be a game time decision. Franzen was recently placed on injured reserve with a hip flexor injury, and Bertuzzi looks to be out long term with a back issue. Darren Helm, Carlo Colaiacovo. and Brendan Smith are all still out for the time being as well. One bright spot is the return of Mikael Samuelsson, who only played the first two games of the season before falling to injury.

Minnesota comes into this tilt fresh off of a loss to Colorado, one of the Western Conference’s weaker teams, so they’ll be looking to rebound just as much as the Wings will. Their first line of Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, and Dany Heatley is as dangerous as any in the league, and Ryan Suter has returned to form as an elite blueliner in the league. The Wild’s goaltending tandem of Nicklas  Backstrom and Josh Harding is hard to stop; this game will be far from an easy task for the hometown boys.

Projected Lineup:

Forwards – with Datsyuk:

Daniel Cleary – Henrik Zetterberg – Damien Brunner

Mikael Samuelsson – Pavel Datsyuk – Valtteri FIlppula

Tomas Tatar – Justin Abdelkader – Patrick Eaves

Drew Miller – Cory Emmerton – Jordin Tootoo

Forwards – without Datsyuk (yes, it’s different enough to bear explanation):

Justin Abdelkader – Henrik Zetterberg – Damien Brunner

Daniel Cleary – Valtteri Filppula – Mikael Samuelsson

Tomas Tatar – Joakim Andersson – Patrick Eaves

Drew Miller – Cory Emmerton – Jordin Tootoo

Defense:

Niklas Kronwall – Brian Lashoff

Jonathan Ericsson – Ian White

Kyle Quincey – Brendan Smith

Goalie

Petr Mrazek

Mrazek will get his second NHL start tonight against the Wild. He performed admirably in his first start, stopping 26 of 27

Feb 7, 2013; St. Louis, MO, USA; Detroit Red Wings goalie Petr Mrazek (34) makes a save against the St. Louis Blues during the third period at the Scottrade Center. The Red Wings defeated the Blues 5-1. Mandatory Credit: Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports

shots and leading the Wings to a 5-1 victory over the hated St. Louis Blues.

Jordin Tootoo needs to regain the ferocity he showed at the beginning of the season. Look for him to regain some forecheck pressure and drop the gloves *at least* once tonight.

Tomas Tatar has shown that he belongs in the NHL in both an energy and a skill role; Babcock will continue to utilize him as a checking forward and on the powerplay, hopefully over Samuelsson and his almost-scary resemblance to a pylon. Henrik Zetterberg has been stellar over the past two losses despite not hitting the scoresheet, but he’ll also look to rebound after not even getting a shot on goal against Anaheim.

Prediction: 4-2 victory for the Red Wings. Henrik Zetterberg leads the offense with two goals, but Mrazek is ultimately the player of the game, stopping a torrent of 40+ Minnesota shots.