Detroit Red Wings Links: Home Sweet Home — Or Is It?

The Detroit Red Wings finally return home after a seven game road trip. Yet they are 7-10-3 at Joe Louis Arena this season, and their schedule doesn’t get any easier.

A tough seven game road trip, in which the Detroit Red Wings compiled a 2-3-2 record, has ended. Not awful, but not great either, especially at this point in the season.

Given how poorly the Red Wings have been at Joe Louis Arena this season—7-10-3 in twenty games—it’s challenging to adopt that “home sweet home” attitude.

Guess who’s coming to town the next four home games? That’s right, the Penguins, Canadiens, Bruins, and Rangers. The Penguins and Red Wings play tonight, in fact. Pittsburgh is coming off back-to-back regulation losses, something they hadn’t suffered in over 400 days. Do you honestly think they’ll lose three straight regulation games, especially when their opponent is a bad Red Wings team?

Home ice is the best place to rack up points and make up ground. But unfortunately I see the Wings continuing to struggle, in no small part due to the level of competition they’ll face.

Red Wings Links

Helene St. James has an article on the Wings coming home, including player comments.

  • Who was the Red Wings’ first-half MVP? [mLive.com]

I think most Red Wings fans can agree that Jimmy Howard, Henrik Zetterberg, Thomas Vanek, Frans Nielsen, and Anthony Mantha have been the team’s five best players this season. Only one can earn MVP honors though. Go vote in that poll!

  • Red Wings midseason report: Playoff streak in big trouble [Detroit News]

Dang right it is. Considering where this organization is at, I don’t care about the “streak” any longer, nor do most fans. I’ve long resigned to the fact that the Wings will miss the playoffs. Hopefully it leads to some real change this coming offseason.

In slideshow format. What do you think? Accurate? Too generous? I’d say mostly accurate but with some graded too generously.

  • Red Wings’ Dylan Larkin learning to be complete player at center [mLive.com]

Larkin is having a tougher season than he did last season. But in the coming seasons he’ll be all the better for it.