Detroit Red Wings determined to spruce up their defensive abilities against the Phoenix Coyotes
The hockey experts say that there are many elements that enable teams to win games. Goaltending and offence are two such elements, and defence is another.
Despite a strong start to the season so far with an 8-3-1 record, lately the Detroit Red Wings have been having problems with their defence. The Wings are coming off of a 6-4 road loss
to the Vancouver Canucks, which saw their winning streak end at three games. One of the causes for this was their lack of effort on the defensive end, and a string of four penalties in their third period. This ultimately led to the home team scoring three
consecutive goals.
“We set ourselves up well and basically limited them to very little, and then we take penalties in the third and gifted a couple of goals,” head coach Mike Babcock told
The Associated Press after the game.
The Red Wings are set to face the Phoenix Coyotes at the Joe Louis Arena on Monday, 8 November. They will definitely be hoping that the home ice advantage they’ll have for the next few
games will help them regroup and earn some more wins.
Babcock is likely to give goaltender Jimmy Howard another start, despite the fact that he allowed a season-high six goals in his last game against the Canucks. The loss also ended Howard’s
five-game winning streak, where he had an impressive goals-against average of only 1.77.
Detroit is currently 4-1-1 at home this season, and they hope that winning record will increase against the Coyotes, who they eliminated in the first round in last year’s Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Red Wings also beat Phoenix 2-1 in a game played on 16 October, but the Coyotes handed the Wings a 4-2 loss on 28 October.
On the offensive end, centre Pavel Datsyuk and defenceman Nicklas Lidstrom are both on multi-game point streaks. Both players earned assists in the loss to Vancouver, and are looking to
increase their scoring streaks to nine games when the Red Wings face the Coyotes.
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