A healthy Tomas Holmstrom is one of the few Wings who hasn't had problems scoring this season. (David Guralnick/The Detroit News)
Detroit
The bar has been set way too high around here for anybody to be feeling good about where the Red Wings are right now. Having 30 points after 26 games and holding the ninth spot in the Western Conference wasn't the plan coming into the season.
Yet, if you were told the Wings would be without four top-end players for a long stretch, have a goal drought that lasted nearly three full games, rank 17th in the league in both goals for and against, have the third-worst penalty-kill unit and a stretch of seven straight games without a win in regulation -- rescuing 28 points might seem like a noble feat.
"I don't think we played particularly poor, at all," coach Mike Babcock said Monday morning. "You know, we have a game in hand on Dallas (7th in the West); we have 28 points and they have 31. So it's a huge game that way.
"But every team is playing a ton of hockey right now and you just have to find a way to grind out wins each and every night."
The game with Dallas Monday was the eighth for the Wings in 13 nights. It concludes the roughest patch of scheduling they will endure all season and thus represents a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.
"If you look at the standings, we're not happy with where we are at," defenseman Brad Stuart said. "But we're still in a position to move up. We just have to continue to do good things and believe sooner or later that the hockey gods will eventually come on our side."
The Wings had not tasted a regulation victory in seven games before Monday. Yet, after beating the Stars 4-1, they came out of the stretch with a 3-4-1 mark. Seven points out of a possible 16 isn't great; but it easily could have been worse.
"We aren't getting the results we want, but I think we've played a lot of good games," Stuart said.
"You know, we've got a lot of guys hurt and we could use those things as excuses, but we're not going to do that," Stuart said.
Lilja update
Everything is status quo with Andreas Lilja , still out because of post-concussion symptoms.
"I said to him today, 'Lils, how are you doing,' " Babcock said. "He said he's great, but he needs a week where he's totally symptom free.
"He told me I'd be the first to know when he was ready to return; though I don't believe that for a minute."
Tape to tape
Patrick Eaves (ankle) was scratched Monday. Kirk Maltby played on the fourth line with Justin Abdelkader and Brad May . Drew Miller took Eaves' spot on the third line with Darren Helm and Kris Draper .
By the numbers
7 Consecutive games the Wings played without a regulation win before Monday.
29 Number of takeaways by Pavel Datsyuk, third in the league.
104 Shots on goal by Henrik Zetterberg this season, fourth in the league.
Avoiding history
The Red Wings were looking to avoid being shut out for an unprecedented third straight game at Joe Louis Arena Monday against Dallas. They went into the game with a home goal-less streak of 142:42 --- sixth longest in team history. Here are their top five longest home scoring droughts:
| Length | Start | End |
| 1. 202:34 | Dec. 15, 1960 | Jan. 5, 1961 |
| 2. 199:35 | Feb. 19 | Mar. 1, 1928 |
| 3. 178:17 | Dec. 14 | Dec. 28, 1958 |
| 4. 173:40 | Mar. 13 | Mar. 31, 1977 |
| 5. 156:30 | Nov. 21 | Nov. 30, 2009 |
Goal-less wonders
The Wings have five forwards currently mired in goal-less slumps of nine games or more. They are:
Brad May -- 16
Patrick Eaves -- 13
Justin Abdelkader -- 10
Ville Leino -- 10
Kirk Maltby -- 9
chris.mccosky@detnews.com">chris.mccosky@detnews.com (313) 222-1489
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