Islanders blank Red Wings

As the Red Wings wrapped up a five-game road-trip, one thing stuck out: the cross-country trip to play the New York Islanders. Mike Babcock even had the team stop in Detroit for a Sunday skate at Joe Louis Arena to try to stay focused.

Fat lot of good it did.

For the seventh time in 23 games, the Red Wings were shut out: 6-0, their worst loss of the season.

Rob Schremp scored a pair of goals for New York, with Mark Streit, Bruno Gervais, Kyle Okposo, and Matt Moulson each adding a goal of their own.

Mike Babcock even made a goaltending change in the second period, putting Chris Osgood in for his first game action since December 20 in a loss to the Chicago Blackhawks.

To be clear, it was not an indictment of the play of Jimmy Howard, who watched his team make 19 giveaways on top of 26 takeaways from the Islanders. Indeed, Babcock confirmed that in a post-game interview on Fox Sports Detroit.

Indeed, the Red Wings defense repeatedly turned the puck over in their own zone, letting New York have chance after chance.

The Red Wings will come back to Joe Louis Arena on Thursday to take on the Carolina Hurricanes.

Player of the game: Henrik Zetterberg. In addition to being one of five Wings whose plus/minus scores were not scathed by this one, he set up a couple of pretty passes and went 6-of-9 on faceoffs.