Red Wings reach 50 victories again

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Another year, another 50 wins.

Pavel Datsyuk set up power-play goals by Nicklas Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg and then scored a short-handed tally to lead the Detroit Red Wings past the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-1, on Saturday night, giving the Red Wings their third consecutive season with at least 50 victories.

No NHL franchise has done that since Montreal did it four years in a row from 1975 to 1979.

“That’s impressive. You go through all the years of hockey, Scotty Bowman did it with Montreal in the ‘70s,” Red Wings Coach Mike Babcock said, “but this is the cap world now. It’s going to be hard to do.”

Babcock noted that others around the league and in the media don’t recognize what the Red Wings have accomplished, because they are so strong every season that it is taken for granted.

“We can’t even get on NBC or TSN anymore [so] we must not be very good,” he said, joking.

Asked if the Red Wings, with more wins and points (106) than anyone else in the league, should be the prohibitive favorite to win the Stanley Cup, Babcock bristled.

“I don’t buy that for a second,” he said. “Everyone is talking about San Jose and Anaheim, etc. I don’t think anybody is talking about us at all.”