Bumps in the road...

So far, 2012 has been 50-50 for the not so streaky Red Wings. I know, nobody else would be bitching about splitting a road trip against Dallas, Toronto, Chicago, and the NY Islanders. Problem is, the Wings do great against the top teams, then flop against the cellar dwellers. Like the Islanders. I mean, they were LAST in the East until they beat the Red Wings, now they are second to last. Going further than that, maybe the Wings should reconsider their push to move to the East if they have to play the Islanders more than once a year. It is games like this that make fans want to gouge out their own eyes with a plastic spoon.

Seriously. 5-0-1 since the lockout? NO WINS against a team that has gone 147-173-44 since the lockout, made the playoffs ONCE since the lockout only to lose in the first round, and at the same time owns more first round draft picks than every team except Edmonton. The Wings have a record of 281-111-57 since the lockout. With more games played due to the playoffs. Which, in case you missed it, the Red Wings have participated in every single season for the past 20 seasons in a row, and 25 out of the last 27 seasons. I'm not sure what the lockout has to do with any of this...OH wait I see. It's a reporting trick to make you all think that the Islanders have something going here. Well, they don't. BEFORE the lockout they lost eight straight, and over the last 33 games the Wings are 23-10. BEFORE the lockout it was 23-5 Red Wings. You don't even want to start talking about goal differential. So, in reality, the Islanders still suck, they just suck less against the Red Wings lately.

So WHY do the Red Wings have issues with the Islanders? The NHL Historical Record says that the Red Wings vs the Islanders All Time record is 44-44-6. Well. No shit. Lets not forget that the Islanders DID win 4 Stanley Cups. In a row. AND that was when the Red Wings were the "Dead Things", and Steve Yzerman had not yet come to save them from permanent obscurity. So most of those Islanders wins were when the Wings couldn't buy a win, and every player was going bald. I think Mickey Redmond was still on the team, for Christ's sake.

So lets turn back to the present. Who's idea was it to start Ty Conklin back to back? One game doesn't make him hot, I mean, yeah, he beat the Blackhawks, but the Wings had some defense going. Last night they looked like a sieve. A broken one. Like those kind of sieves that you find in roadside ditches near abandoned trailer parks.

So can we as fans be happy that the Wings have won more Stanley Cups than any two other US teams combined? That they have made the playoffs for longer than some fans have been alive? That they have had winning seasons every year since 1991?

Hell no!

Red Wings fans are spoiled rotten. Loyal as hell, but spoiled. If ever a return to the "Dead Things" era becomes a reality (god forbid), there will be no jumping ship by the real fans. I was a fan in 86 when the Wings went 17-57-6 (that's not a typo), and I am still a fan today. We don't give a flying f*ck at a rolling donut about the Islanders problems. Maybe they will win the Stanley Cup again someday. Hell, maybe you will run into a really big, tall, fat Japanese guy with red hair too. Never know.

But can we please stop fooling around with these crappy teams? I mean, really.

For Ken: The Rangers are tops in the NHL with 58 points (27-9-4). You can now start asking yourself how they are going to blow it this year.