For the first few months of the season, it seemed that the Red Wings and Senators were running away and hiding in the races for the top seeds in the Western and Eastern conferences, respectively.
Ottawa opened the season 13-1, Detroit 13-2-1.
Those were the good old days.
The Red Wings were 41-10-4 four weeks ago, and their only win since was a 4-0 rout of the Avalanche in Denver on Feb. 18.
At one point, they were 17 points ahead of No. 2 Dallas in the conference; going into the weekend, following a Friday night loss at home to San Jose, that gap was down to three.
Even the game in Denver was a Pyrrhic victory for the Red Wings because of the sprained medial collateral ligament Nick Lidstrom suffered when Avs winger Ian Laperriere hit the veteran defenseman. Lidstrom is expected to be out at least another week.
That was only part of an injury siege that, when combined with one of the inevitable ruts that appear in even the best years, has eliminated the Red Wings’ hope of matching their 62 victories in the pre-shootout 1995-96 season.
Coverage in most NHL cities tends to give at least minor credence to the theory that only the hometown team has suffered significant injuries, and Detroit is no different. But the Red Wings have had defensemen Lidstrom, Chris Chelios, Brian Rafalski and Niklas Kronwall all missing from the lineup for various stretches of the slump. Dominik Hasek returned to the crease Friday against San Jose for the first time in nearly three weeks after recovering from a hip injury.
The Wings’ major move at the trade deadline was picking up journeyman defenseman Brad Stuart in the Kings’ fire sale.
Here’s the good news: Kron-wall also was back in the lineup Friday, and the others are expected back soon. Plus, all but one of the Wings’ final 15 games are against Central Division rivals, and given Columbus’ white-flag deals at the deadline and Nashville’s recent struggles, the division is getting back to its cupcake image. So the Red Wings are likely to get their act together heading into the playoffs, and they’ll almost certainly still be the No. 1 seed in the West.
The Senators’ collapse has had a higher toll.
Going into a Saturday meeting with the Penguins, the Senators not only had dropped behind the Devils in the overall East standings, they had gotten their coach, John Paddock, fired.
Although the Sens posted consecutive losses of 5-0 to Toronto and 4-0 to Boston, and had only seven wins in a 21-game stretch when Paddock was axed, it’s not as if the 36-23-6 record was an embarrassment.
This is the franchise where GM John Muckler was shoved aside after the Sens made the Cup Finals last spring — as coach Bryan Murray, previously the coach at Anaheim and other stops, moved back upstairs.
So after promoting his assistant coach in the offseason, Murray now has fired Paddock and has both jobs.
Widespread Panic not only is a great group, it’s an NHL fashion, and even late in the season for teams destined for the postseason. Lou Lamoriello had it down to a science in New Jersey, and now Murray seems to have joined the club. Especially if goalie Ray Emery gets his mask completely back on straight, so to speak, the Sens at least will regain some momentum for the postseason — and Murray could end up looking like a genius.
Funny how that works.
Hossa hurt.
The knee injury Marian Hossa suffered in his first game with the Penguins on Thursday night isn’t believed to be serious, and he is expected to be out only a week. He collided with Bruins winger Glen Murray in a 5-1 Pittsburgh loss at the TD Banknorth Garden.
“It’s really disappointing,” Hossa, acquired from Atlanta at the deadline, told reporters after the game. “When I dropped the puck to (defenseman Sergei Gonchar), there was a little hit, knee-on-knee. It was just an accident.”
The Penguins used him on a Jordan Staal-centered line with Ryan Malone.
