Are you kidding me?

I'm really tempted to just leave this post with that sentence, but clearly I can't.

It's just unbelievable. This team of professionals. This team of veterans. This team of the been-there-done-thats. Jekyll and Hyde looks at this team and says, "wow, these guys are schizos." What a joke.

Recap: Saturday, Detroit dismantles the best team in hockey right now: San Jose. Sorry Chicago, it's cute, but San Jose's been where you are -- the new hotness with all their young talent and impressive carefree demeanor. They're past it. They're becoming the perennial playoff choker. They're realizing now they need to take the regular season seriously to have any success in the playoffs. And Detroit embarrassed them, on their ice. Some red hot team with unparalleled scoring depth managed one goal on an easy rebound and proceeded to turn the puck over all night to a team featuring Brad May.

Sunday and Monday, team's arriving back in Detroit, satisfied with a fairly successful road trip that saw a 4-1 junker the only lowlight, in a trip that typically gives Detroit trouble. Maybe some practice, but also some rest for the weary after the long trip. Job well done. Tuesday, for reason's unknown, Detroit's got to head to the other side of the country and take on the Islanders. Whatever. They're coming off the biggest win of the season, the biggest statement to the rest of the league: we're ready to take this season seriously, as late as it may be.

Who didn't see this coming? They talked about it on the podcast. Most blogs mentioned it. That's just the pace of the season. Detroit shows up to slap around their rivals, and take nights off against teams that'll be in the hunt for the draft lottery. When people said it, when people wrote it, they just didn't take it seriously. There was no way this team could really unravel against New York. Really, it's part of the road trip, but it should have been energetic to take that win against San Jose and spend a day at home. Instead...

Loss. Out shot. Blown out. Shut out. Goalie chased.

Dwayne Roloson joins the exclusive clubs of goalies to shut Detroit out this season. Ondrej Pavelec, Miikka Kiprusoff, Ty Conklin, Cristobal Huet, Antti Niemi, and Steve Mason. Half those goalies weren't even locks to be in the league this year. Kipper's understandable, he'll take a game or two away from you. Mason is a Calder winner currently falling apart. And I can't even think of anything mean to say about Huet that really captures how bad the guy actually is.

The praise this team gets thrown when they're winning is just utterly gone to me. I can understand slumps, I can understand getting blanked when you have so many injuries. But when you're getting healthy, and coming off a win like that, a game like this is absolutely unacceptable. Where's the leadership? Not Nick, necessarily, but it would help if he was doing anything right now. Where's the leadership by example? You get Danger Helm, Patrick Eaves, Drew Miller, etc., putting out great shifts every once in a while but the rest of the team just yawns on the bench, slugs some Gatorade, and gets to coast around the ice for 45 seconds a time.

Mike Babcock for Jack Adams? I'm a fan, no doubt. He's done miraculous things with such a lazy club. But what's to be said about inspiration on a team that gets blanked seven times in 45 games? Who just cannot get over that hump and win that game that puts them back into the playoff picture? Who cannot get his best players to be his best players evey night? Who refuses to break up line combinations that so obviously are falling on their faces? Who cannot for the life of him light a fire under someone who can be an elite goaltender? I'm just saying. I raved about Babcock's coaching abilities as well, last week. He's racking up too many of these throw-away garbage games to truly be the Jack Adams frontrunner. People are only bringing up that stuff after a big win. The next time that starts to happen -- think about this game. And think about the next time Detroit gets blanked by some cellar-dweller (no offense Isles, they brought it tonight, but sorry -- no Cup this year). Please someone tell me I'm overreacting. This is seven shutouts now, and there have been a few games where the team should have been shut out. I'm far more concerned with these trash losses over how badly this team can beat San Jose.

Don't get me wrong -- Chris Osgood was not at fault tonight. Wasn't great once he came in, but it wasn't the plan for him to come in. He's been sulking and moping recently, waiting for his chance. He was likely told, or probably figured out himself, that he wasn't going to start until at least the weekend. If you're gonna rile him up and get him psyched for whenever he gets a chance to prove himself, he needs time to mentally ready himself for it. Focus on the date, and nothing but that date. Not come in after Howard gets lit up. Seriously though, after each surrendered three -- is there any doubt who's in better shape mentally? Howard still made a few big saves, huge saves. Goals were the fault of the guys in front of him. Osgood didn't lose it for the team, but nothing deflates like that fourth goal. He's crushed right now, he couldn't even stop the bleeding. Howard's still the guy in my mind, but who knows what happens after they get blown out by Carolina too.

Is there even any doubt what happens from here on out? Team's going to lose to Carolina, maybe 4-1, probably drop an overtime game to Dallas on Saturday that gets people talking about how their effort level is better, and cap off the week with a 4-2 win over Chicago. Is that acceptable? Recently, to most, yes. I'm numb to it now. I'm not going to look for "turning points" or signs of optimism. Not until we crush Carolina 8-0 like we should, and come back on the Islanders to win 5-4 in overtime after falling behind 4-0. That's the thing... when the team takes a couple shots early, they completely mentally shut down. When turnovers and bad bounces happen, they just regress into "it's just not our night" crap and run out the clock. Don't care how many goals they've scored this year -- they've turned it on offensively a few times this year and they are more than capable of scoring goals in bunches.

On the bright side, if we get to the playoffs as an 8th seed I think we might be mathematically unbeatable. God willing, if we get there.

Absolute garbage. Whatever. At least Conan was funny.