Woeful starts have led to unpleasant endings for the Detroit Red Wings during their six-game losing streak.
With its confidence shaken, Detroit returns home to face Arizona on Thursday night.
During the slide, the Red Wings have been outscored 13-4 in the first period. They gave up four first-period goals while getting thumped 7-3 at Buffalo on Tuesday night.
After coming up empty during a four-game road trip, the Red Wings find themselves tied with the New York Islanders for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. The losing streak, which followed a six-game winning streak, began with a home defeat to the Islanders.
"We're running out (of time)," Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. "Luckily, we've had some stretches in our season to keep us in this battle, but you'll run out of time. Our focus will be the first period on Thursday, a good start on Thursday."
Team captain Dylan Larkin missed the road swing with a lower-body injury and it's uncertain how soon he'll return. That doesn't excuse the poor play that has led to quality scoring chances for their opponents.
"There are things we've identified that have slipped into our game and things we need to improve on," defenseman Jeff Petry said. "We all believe in each other in here and we believe we have a group to come out of this and come out of this stronger. It's going to take a complete 60-minute effort to continue to build off those things."
Lalonde pulled starting goaltender Alex Lyon on Tuesday after Buffalo's fourth goal in favor of James Reimer. Lalonde said afterward goaltending wasn't the issue.
"With our six-game win streak and how good we were for a stretch there, our goaltending was outstanding," Lalonde said. "But this is not on the goaltending at all. We left the goalies out to dry."
The Wings will be looking to avenge Friday's 4-0 loss to the Coyotes. Arizona scored two goals in the first 8:05 and the Red Wings never recovered. Connor Ingram made 28 saves to record the shutout.
That was Arizona's lone win over the last five games. It lost at Chicago, 7-4, on Sunday, then fell to Minnesota, 4-1, on Tuesday.
The Wild had eight more shots on goal. Nick Bjugstad scored in the second period, but otherwise Arizona didn't put much pressure on Minnesota goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
"We can't rely on our goalies that much every night, and it seems like some nights that's kind of the theme," Coyotes forward Michael Carcone said. "We've got to get away from that and start playing some good hockey here."
Coach Andre Tourigny felt his team wasted a solid defensive effort. Minnesota's last two goals were empty-netters.
"I think we played a hard-checking game," he said. "We kept them on the outside a lot, blocked a lot of shots, and played good in front of our net. I think (goaltender Karel Vejmelka) was solid, as well. We did a lot of good stuff defensively."
More must-reads: