Wings Far from Perfect on Lidstrom's Jersey Retirement Night

Talk about a buzzkill.

It seems as though the Red Wings are out to make sure they make a terrible mess of every significant event taking place this season with them involved.  Winter Classic? Awesome, let's lose that one in front of a record-setting crowd--oh wait, we didn't even manage that part.  Oh hey, Lidstrom's jersey is going up to the rafters tonight and we could spank the Avs in the same evening! Well, on second thought, let's not bother.  To do that, we'd have to play a full 60-minute hockey game.  Instead, let's make a big spectacle of the banner-raising (which was seriously beautiful, by the way), then blow two leads after playing about 50 minutes of solid, heart-and-soul hockey...and then nap through the rest of the game.

Yeah, that was a great plan, boys.

I said it on Twitter last night and I will say it here: Yes, there are injuries and yes, that means we aren't playing our best players.  That does not equate to this team being poor skill-wise.  Our defense is lacking, I'll be first to admit, but how do you play relatively sound, smart hockey for 50 minutes and then just turn it around like you have 5 guys on the ice consistently unaware of what the game of hockey even is??  When they talk about players running out of gas, I wouldn't think to take it so literal that they ACTUALLY SHUT DOWN once that gauge dips!!

Oh, there's minute 50, time for us to go comatose! Really, guys...?  You're better than this, you know it and everyone on this side of it knows it.  Get your damn act together before you finally cost yourselves a playoff berth because you couldn't be bothered to stick it out for another half a period.