Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News writes that it was very apparent in practice yesterday that the Wings were going to pay for their embarrassing 10-3 loss at the hands of the St. Louis Blues. Head coach Mike Babcock wanted to make it clear that the effort the team gave Wednesday night was totally unacceptable but that it was also time to move on from it.
“Compete and work, that’s all it was,” Babcock said. “It was just a penance day, basically.”
Players were often times seen bent over in exhaustion and gasping for air as they completed sprinting drill after sprinting drill.
“We have to wake up, the games are winding down,” said Niklas Kronwall, noting there are five games remaining before the playoffs. “The playoffs are coming around the corner and the way we’re playing, we’re not going to win a lot of games.”
According to Kulfan, two areas the Wings have to address are the defensive breakdowns and their overall play at home.
“It’s definitely not good,” Henrik Zetterberg said. “(We) have to do a lot better. We’ve got to score more goals and win more games in the playoffs. Otherwise we won’t last long.”
The Wings did get some good new yesterday though, Jimmy Howard who was injured last Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs with a sprained shoulder will start this Saturday in Nashville.
“It felt good in practice, the stiffness is pretty much gone,” Howard said .”I look forward to getting out there.”
You kinda have to question on whether or not the Wings are rushing Howard back after what happened Wednesday night.
Forward Mike Modano also should be good to go on Saturday after being held out of practice with a sore groin.
Source: Detroit News