Entering tonight's game against Dallas, the Red Wings rank first in the NHL in penalty killing at home (87.8 percent) and last in the league in road PK (73.4 percent). Detroit has allowed 25 PP goals in 20 road games. (Combine that with the 27 PP goals and one short-handed goal scored on the road and there have been 53 special-teams goals in Detroit's 20 road games.)

The PK road problems brought this comment from Coach Mike Babcock this morning "There's always things you have to improve. That's one thing we have to get a lot better at. You can't win at playoff time with penalty killing like ours."

Babcock pointed to the 1-of-7 short-handed faceoff performance that the Red Wings had at the Winter Classic. That played a part in Chicago scoring three power-play goals. "We gave up six goals in two nights," said Babcock. "Not one of them you'd say, 'Gee I wish a guy would stand here.' You'd say, 'Why didn't we win the faceoff and shoot it down or why don't we have it on our forehand and shoot it out.' ... So we're the best faceoff team in the league … it doesn't add up to me."

The faceoff difference was obvious in Chicago. (Detroit was 1-of-7, not 1-of-8 as Babcock said.) But when Detroit gave up three power-play goals in Colorado, Dec. 27, the Red Wings were 7-of-11 on short-handed draws. And in Minnesota, Jan. 3, Detroit was 4-of-7 on short-handed draws.

There are some faceoff issues, but there are other problems too.