The Wings keep mowin’ em down in Motown, and are now only one win away from sole position of the record of most consecutive home wins in a season. Their last win at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday put them in a three-way tie for the All-Time record. The only other two teams that have hit the 20 straight home wins mark are; the 1929-30 Boston Bruins, and the 1975-76 Philadelphia Flyers. Which seems perfectly fitting that Detroit had to best the Flyers in the final game to join the club.
The road to the record hasn’t been easy, as they have had to deal with adversity on and off the ice. On the ice, they have had to overcome the loss of their starting goaltender Jimmy Howard, who broke his right index finger. Luckily they had career back-up Joey MacDonald step up to the plate and capture the last three wins of the streak. And off the ice, they have had to deal with the hockey purists who think the record shouldn’t count in the same light, as Philly was the only team to win their 20 games without the benefits of overtime or shootout. Boston won 2 of their games in overtime, and Detroit on their current streak has won 1 game in overtime and 3 via the shootout. Personally I don’t think the changes in the game over the years should be seen as negative, nor should they affect the legitimacy of either streak. I guess if you really wanted to you could call it an “undefeated streak” but I don’t see the point, as we say on the street, “a wins a win”.
So hopefully you’ve accepted their first 20, because tonight is the night they go for 21. Their opponent will be the Dallas Stars. Dallas isn’t a pushover by any means, but Detroit is catching them at a good time. They have a losing record over their last 10, they are only .500 on the road, and they are currently sitting in 11th place in the West. So lets say Detroit does win this game tonight and sets a new record, how far can they take this thing? Well, they do have 15 home games remaining this season (as the streak is not allowed to be carried over to other seasons), which gives them plenty of opportunity to possibly put up a number that would be virtually untouchable. If they somehow managed to win out the season, they would have accumulated 35 straight wins out of a total of 41 home games. The record for most home wins in a season is only 36 (two teams tied, Detroit, Philly), and they sure as heck weren’t consecutive. Detroit will have its hands full though, as their schedule won’t be doing them any favours over the next few games. After Dallas they have Nashville and San Jose at home, a road game against the Blackhawks, followed by Vancouver and Colorado at home. The good thing is, the team is very focused, and near sighted. They don’t care about streaks and records. They just care about winning one game at a time and collecting those two points in the standings.
So what do you think? Will there be a little love in the air for the boys in red tonight? Could they possibly get a little pre-game luck from one of their eight-legged friends?
How far can this Detroit team go?
Well one thing is for sure, there will definitely be a sea of red in the Joe tonight that wants nothing more this Valentines Day than win number 21.
