Aside from the first five to ten minutes, this might have been the Red Wings' strongest game of the season.

Their defense (again, aside from the start) was rock solid and Chris Osgood made the stops he had to.

It would have been nice to see more pucks behind Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Jonas Hiller but the shots were there and that's a start.

This pregame report is brought to you by hand-me down-snowblowers. Hand-me-down snowblowers, clearing my driveway since about 45 minutes ago.

Mike Babcock did his equivalent of tearing his team a new one in the press today.

After several of the Red Wings' losses this season I've had a hard time explaining what went wrong. Tonight feels like another one of those nights.

Can it really be as simple as Detroit not playing hard enough? I find that hard to believe but it seems to be the case.

The Wings defense has been a step behind, their goaltending has been a little slow, and their shots are just a little off.

Darren McCarty, back from his one-game stint with the Grand Rapids Griffins, will miss tonight's Red Wings - Blue Jackets matchup. McCarty tweaked a groin injury at Detroit's morning skate.

Derek Meech will remain at forward to replace McCarty on the fourth line after originally expecting to be a healthy scratch.

Maybe I'm just feeling optimistic this morning but I don't count last night's loss to Montreal as being too bad of a loss to take.

The Red Wings didn't do a lot that was outright wrong. They got outplayed in what was mostly an energy issue, not a talent issue. They weren't as effective in the corners as they needed to be and it cost them scoring chances.