from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

Wednesday's 5-1 loss against New Jersey was the latest example. The Wings fell behind 5-0 before scoring a late goal to at least thwart the Devils' shutout.

But it was the fifth consecutive game the Wings have trailed, three times the deficit being at least four goals

Now, the Wings did rally from a 4-0 first-period deficit in Pittsburgh to defeat the Penguins 5-4 in overtime, and rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Ottawa, 4-2.

But no team can expect to live this dangerously and believe they can consistently come back to win.

"It's not sustainable," captain Dylan Larkin said. "You have to play a full 60 minutes and try to get leads, especially on home ice, that's very important. You get your matchups, it's an environment you're comfortable with. You have to find a way to get a goal."

The Wings emphasized a good start against the Devils, and for the most part, they were satisfied, as they came out of the first period 0-0 with New Jersey. But the lack of offense is a factor.

In the last four games, the Wings have found themselves trailing 7-0 after the first period, although coach Derek Lalonde see those numbers as not indicative of how the Wings looked.

"It's always frustrating," Lalonde said. "Were not built like that (scoring goals in bunches). We emphasized a good start today and we got it. The bottom line is we come out of those (previous four games) and don't score a first-period goal. It's not comfortable trailing.

"We've been outscored 7-0 in the first period (over the four games), but our play was actually pretty good."

more (Husso starts tomorrow)

from Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now,

The Detroit Red Wings overall are performing better defensively than they did last season. They are harder to play against and are surrendering fewer high danger scoring chances.

But over the past eight games, the Red Wings goals-against average has started to crawl upward. They have surrendered 35 goals in those eight games for an average of 4.37 goals per game. Their season GAA has risen to 3.33, ranking them 20th in the NHL.

The trend seems particularly concerning because the Red Wings are about to face the Florida Panthers (Friday at home) and Toronto Maple Leafs (Saturday on the road) who are both ranked among the NHLs top 10 scoring teams. The Maple Leafs are seventh and Detroit faces them again next week.

I havent thought about it like that because I think our process has been very similar, Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. Goals against have creeped up but the chances against, our underlying numbers have not, theyve been pretty consistent with where weve been when weve had some success. Is that good enough? I dont know.

continued