Wings Wallow Against Inspired Isles, Lose 5-1

Man oh man, I just can't figure this out.

Is it because the boys write off games against this team?  Is it the underdog complex winning the day game in and game out?  Whatever it is, the Red Wings apparently need to just STOP playing the New York Islanders.

With Pavel Datsyuk out due to a lower body injury, and Ty Conklin, well...being Ty Conklin, Detroit staggered to an embarrassing 5-1 loss in what should have been an easier-than-average tilt.  Instead, we helped the Isles move all the way up to...second-to-worst team in the East.

Good job, boys.  We don't need those gimmie wins, right? Right...?

I didn't get to watch the game, but I don't need to have seen it to know that even without Dats in the lineup, there is plenty of firepower on this team to get more than 1 puck past Evgeni Nabokov.  Was that the reason for this latest bed-soiling against the Isles? Just a case of Nabby haunting us, showing us what we COULD have had instead of Conklin?  Maybe so, but we've got what we've got, and what we've got should be beating NYI into the ice 8 days out of 7.

Thanks to the poor effort last night, Detroit drops out of top spot in the Central, and the Blues have now claimed it.  I know we usually talk out not caring about topping the Division/Conference, but the way we've been playing at home, the Wings may want to make sure that, come season's end, their name is one of the top 3 in the West. Dropping games like last night is just going to make that more difficult.