More of the same

The Wings are making me sound like a broken record. Last night, in another uninspired loss, the Red Wings showed no signs of returning to dominance. Yes, we can blame injuries, but, after looking at the roster from last season, there's actually less turnover than we're led to believe.

Last night, the top 10 players in terms of minutes:
Stuart
Lidstrom
Ericsson
Lebda
Datsyuk
Meech
Zetterberg
Leino
Cleary
Bertuzzi

Compared to Game 7 against the Penguins, a mere 5 months ago:
Lidstrom
Rafalski
Zetterberg
Kronwall
Franzen
Datsyuk
Stuart
Hossa
Cleary
Filppula

Five of the ten are the same, despite the injuries and defections. Rafalski and Kronwall were only recently knocked out with injuries. Further, only one of the ten is no longer with the team (Hossa). For the majority of this season, the Red Wings had 70% of their top players from last year's Stanley Cup Finalist squad. Yet, this season, they can't stay above .500.

In fact, there are only four teams in the West with a worse record. It was one of those four teams (Edmonton) that clobbered the Wings just last night... at the Joe.

So, if I buy the injury excuse for the recent losses, what about their 3-6 record out of the gate? Franzen, Kronwall, and Filppula were 100% healthy. The bottom line is that the Red Wings' troubles are much more complex than just personnel. For whatever reason, they're not playing with the same cohesion. Across the board, there's a dropoff in production. Even Jimmy Howard, one of the few recent bright spots, absolutely crumbled last night, as weak shots somehow found their way into his net. The biggest worry for me is Datsyuk - 2 assists in his last 10 games. Not only is he no longer elite, he's barely average. A shocking seventy players have more points than the former Pav4Hart. That's SEVEN ZERO (70!!!), including such non-household names like Tim Connolly and Matt Moulson. I have no explanation for Datsyuk's drop in form. He's certainly not over-the-hill (31). One thing is for sure though - the Wings will go nowhere unless he steps up. Zetterberg has carried the load. Others must help.