With their recent five-game road trip finished, the Detroit Red Wings can still point to a glaring issue facing their team.
The Wings still seem to be having difficulty winning on the road, with their 15-15-1 record being quite different from their 20-2-1 mark at home.
It’s hard to pin point what exactly makes the Wings so inconsistent away from the Joe but here’s what they did on their recent road trip.
Jan. 25 – 7-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens (20-24-9)
Jan. 31 – 3-1 win over the Calgary Flames (24-22-7)
Feb. 2 – 4-3 SO win over the Vancouver Canucks (32-15-5)
Feb. 4 – 5-4 SO loss to the Edmonton Oilers (21-27-5)
Feb. 6 – 3-1 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes (24-21-8)
The Red Wings currently sit ahead of every team on this list. Yet they only won two of the five games. What doesn’t seem to make sense out of this group is who the wins are against and who the losses are against. All three losses were against teams currently out of the playoff picture. One of the wins was against the Calgary Flames, who are currently out of the playoffs, but their other was against the Vancouver Canucks, who trail the Wings by only three points in the standings.
If the Wings can’t get this sorted out, they will have major problems in the playoffs. Of the 16 teams currently holding playoff positions, only three other teams are at the same road winning percentage or lower.
With Jimmy Howard injured right now and his status uncertain, it’s hard to tell what the Wings are going to do in net but this could make this problem worse before it gets better.
The good news? The Wings have a six-game home swing coming up.