The NHL schedule is relentless and the banged-up Red Wings seem to be wearing down under the weight of it.
They wanted to speed things up against Ottawa on Friday and probe the Senators' mistake-prone defense. But the ice turned into a mud bath for the Wings despite having two days off as they dragged through a 4-2 loss to the league's worst road team.
The game was tied at 2 after two periods. The Senators outshot them 13-6 the rest of the way.
"Yeah, they were hounding the puck but we just played a little too slow as well," Luke Glendening said of the third-period malaise.