Red Wings fall to Predators on Chris Chelios Night

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By Stefan Kubus –

DETROIT – Detroit defenseman Chris Chelios was honored at Joe Louis Arena for his recent Hockey Hall of Fame induction.

Unfortunately, that was the only feel-good moment of Tuesday night’s game.

The Red Wings’ woes at Joe Louis Arena continued, falling for the seventh-straight game overall and ninth-straight game on home ice, by a score of 2-0. Detroit native David Legwand tallied a goal and an assist for the Red Wings’ former Central Division rival Nashville.

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“Any time you haven’t won, as long as we haven’t won, obviously that’s concerning,” Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said. “But to me, it’s all about getting better each and every day. I tell you that when we’re winning, and I tell you that when we’re losing, so we’re going to come here tomorrow, we’re going to get better and get our ship righted.”

Although the Red Wings have gotten one point out of the last five straight games at The Joe, they haven’t gotten that second one at home since Oct. 15, a 2-1 regulation win against Columbus.

Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said the team just needs “a little bump” to get past the current losing skid his squad is on.

“When you’re in a slide like this, you shouldn’t start to think that much; just go out and play,” Zetterberg said. “Right now, it’s almost like we’re squeezing our sticks too much. We’re not playing the way we should.”

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Rookie defenseman Danny DeKeyser left early in the first period with a left shoulder injury and did not return after colliding with Nashville forward Patric Hornqvist.

“Well, obviously he’s a real good player for us,” Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said of DeKeyser. “He really gets the puck going, he’s a good transitional ‘D.’ I mean, if you watch [Seth] Jones for them tonight, you just see what transitional ‘D’ do: they get the puck going fast, so he’s out for a bit. I don’t know the details… but he’s definitely not playing this week.”

The game’s first goal didn’t come until the end of the second period, as Weber’s point shot squeaked its way past Howard through traffic for the 1-0 with just 4.8 seconds remaining. Legwand drew an assist on Weber’s sixth of the season.

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In the third, with just over 12 minutes to play, Legwand took a funny bounce off the end boards and tucked home his fifth of the year behind Howard for the 2-0 lead.

In an effort to spark some life into his team, Mikael Samuelsson dropped the gloves with fellow Swede Viktor Stalberg at 16:15 of the third period, but the scrap was quickly broken up by officials. Each were given two-minute minors for holding, providing two minutes of 4-on-4 play. But at that point, it was too late for Detroit to come back.

“We’re all trying to do a little bit too much out there,” Howard said. “I think, at the end of the day, we’ve got to take a step back, take a breather. Everyone go out there and do their own jobs, not trying to be too much out there. I think that goes for all of us.”

Zetterberg echoed his goaltender’s thoughts and said his team just needs to get back to having fun out there.

“I think we’re more like robots out there,” Zetterberg said. “We’re not being creative enough when we get our chances, so we’ve just got to get back to playing the way we should. Just relax a little bit and enjoy the moment. I think, now, we’re not enjoying playing out there.”