Teamwork Has Gone Into the Red Wings’ Collapse

Stuck in a week-long nightmare, the Detroit Red Wings had better wake up or they’ll be swept out of the playoffs by the upstart Mighty Ducks tonight at the Arrowhead Pond.

In losing the first three games of their first-round series, the defending Stanley Cup champions have shown surprisingly little fight against a team that finished the regular season 15 points behind them.

The Red Wings’ trademark cocky swagger is all but gone, replaced by a sense of uncertainty because of the dominant play of Duck goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere. In three games, Giguere has turned the Red Wings from a championship team that always seemed to find a way to win to a talented team more willing to be stylish than gritty.

There’s a reason the Red Wings’ grind line of Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby and Darren McCarty has been generating more than its share of scoring chances. That line plays physically, plain and simple. It’s something Detroit has not done well enough as a team that seems to get older with every shift.

Now, it’s down to pride for the Red Wings, who will have to dig deep to break through against Giguere. If they don’t, they’ll suffer their first playoff sweep since New Jersey beat them four straight in the 1995 Stanley Cup finals.

A breakdown of Game 4:

Detroit’s move -- Goaltender Curtis Joseph has been blamed for letting his teammates down because of some of the questionable goals he’s given up. But Joseph isn’t the only Red Wing not playing his best.

Detroit’s blue-liners have been making too many mistakes as a group in their own zone, from turning the puck over to failing to clear rebounds.

Defensemen Nicklas Lidstrom, Mathieu Schneider, Mathieu Dandenault and Chris Chelios have had to log extra ice time because Dmitri Bykov and Jason Woolley do not provide much help. It’s time for Coach Dave Lewis to play Jiri Fischer, who’s been sidelined since November because of injury but has been practicing regularly with the team. He should toughen the Red Wings’ defense.

Another problem for the Red Wings: Their big-name offensive players are not getting the job done. Leading scorer Sergei Fedorov hasn’t scored in the series. Neither has Steve Yzerman nor Brett Hull, and Lidstrom has not been a factor.

Anaheim’s move -- The Ducks need to score first. They can’t afford to sit back and allow the Red Wings to take the play to them early. Anaheim has to set the tone.

The best way the Ducks can do that is to stay out of the penalty box. Although their penalty-killers have done a good job shutting down the Red Wings’ power play, Coach Mike Babcock doesn’t want to roll the dice too many times.

Look for the Ducks to try using the Red Wings’ desperation in their favor. Anaheim realizes that Detroit’s roster is loaded with future hall-of-famers and that it may be now or never for veterans Yzerman, Hull, Chelios, Luc Robitaille, Igor Larionov and Brendan Shanahan, who don’t have many more chances to win the Stanley Cup.

The more the Red Wings press, the more vulnerable they are to the Ducks’ counterattack. That may prove to be the difference.