A day after the Wings most embarrassing loss of the season they got back to work on Thursday afternoon trying to fix some, if not all of their many problems right now. Despite thinking that maybe Detroit would be skated to death by head coach Mike Babcock because of how the team played against the Preds, instead it was a 30 minute workout where the team got back to the fundamentals. "You know today we didn't work on a whole lot of things, more driving to the net, shooting the puck and getting back to basics" was the agenda according to Nick Lidstrom. When asked why the coach didn't skate his players until they puke, Babcock responded "I would have sure liked it, we have earned the right to skate for a long, long time. I think everyone got the message and we have practice days coming." The main reason the practice was so short is because the Wings play 2 games against the very defensive and good Bruins in the next three days and Babcock did not want to wear out the team.

As for the problems that have added to the Wings losing their last 3 of 4, well they seem to be many. Currently Detroit can't produce any traffic in front of the opposing goalie, they can't seem to get the puck out of their own zone and when they do get chances, there are no second chances. Another problem is also the goaltending. While the slide has not been totally the fault of Jimmy Howard, he has not helped. Howard month by month statistics are staggering essentially saying that as time movies on Jimmy struggles more. Howard started October with a very respectable 2.14 goals against average while in November it jumped to 2.67 a game. Then it gets ugly as in December, Howard's goals against was bumped to 2.90, in January it was 3.49 and in the month of February thus far it is at 3.73. Howard was asked this afternoon if he is feeling the pressure of a tough season and he said "no not at all, I have to just make saves for the guys, you know continue to trust in them that they got the back door. You just have to dig in at the top of the crease and not give up much."

As for those Bruins that Detroit will play twice in the next 3 days, well they are good as I mentioned. Right now Boston is the third best team in the Eastern Conference and many hockey pundits consider the Bruins to be the best defensive team in the game. So with all the struggling that Detroit has done, is this potentially a great time to face Boston, or a terrible time? Babcock chimed in saying "Sure, I mean the way we have been hear lately it just doesn't matter who we've played. The bottom line they are on the schedule next, we don't get to play them much. They are a deep and physical team, they have great goaltending and we are going to have to play real well and I think we all understand that." Henrik Zetterberg responded as well " anytime you play a good team, it's like in the playoffs you get a little more excited and you get ready to play from the start", something that the Wings have failed to do in many of their previous games.

Of course when you talk about Boston you have to mention their goalie Tim Thomas. Thomas is the frontrunner to win the Vezina trophy (best goalie) having a remarkable season in Bean Town. Thomas has a ridiculous 1.91 goals against average and a save percentage that sits at .933. It's hard to believe, but Thomas and the Bruins gave up 6 goals in their last game against Montreal, but still won by countering with 8 goals themselves. The big story of that game involved Thomas not only giving up the 6 goals but also getting into a fight with fellow goal keeper Carey Price. When Howard was asked if he, like Price wanted to fight Thomas he responded " yeah, I saw a little bit of it, it wasn't much of anything, it was more ring around the rosyie I think, was there even a punch thrown? Yeah Timmy (Thomas) was laughing wasn't he? I don't see it in my future anytime soon, but you never know though, maybe in the playoffs, you never know." As for the fight last night, it wasn't much of anything as Howard said, Thomas wanted to fight but once Price agreed, Thomas was taken down almost immediately and then both goalies laughed about it.

See if the Wings can get back on the winning track Friday against the Bruins in Boston, broadcast time 6:40 pm on "The Ticket" Detroit also will play the second game of the home and home on Sunday at the Joe at 12:10, hear that game as well on "The Ticket"