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Red Wings’ Babcock: ‘Shootouts are killing us’

Red Wings Islanders Hockey

New York Islander’ Frans Nielsen (51) shoots the puck past Detroit Red Wings goalie Jonas Gustavsson (50) to score in a shootout of an NHL hockey game on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2013, in Uniondale, N.Y. The Islanders won on Nielsen’s goal 5-4 in a shootout. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

AP

Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland said there’s interest among his peers to extend the length of the overtime period in an effort to reduce the number of shootouts. He probably wishes that such a change had been implemented for the 2013-14 campaign.

Detroit is on a six-game losing streak and its last three games have ended with a shootout. They’ve now been unsuccessful in four shootout attempts this season.

“It’s pretty obvious we got to win in regulation because the shootouts are killing us,” coach Mike Babcock told the Detroit News.

There’s no single reason for their struggles. Jimmy Howard has a .429 save percentage in the skills competition compared to a career .710.

Jonas Gustavsson held the Islanders to one goal during Saturday’s shootout, but they still lost because of the other half of Detroit’s issue. Daniel Alfredsson is the only Red Wings player that’s managed to find the back of the net. Pavel Datsyuk, who has traditionally been one of the NHL’s best players in that regard, has failed in four attempts this season.

“It’s like anything in life, it gets in your head a little bit,” Babcock said. “To me, we got to be hard-headed. We got to be mentally tough and we just got to bring it to a table.”

Those four extra points would have been enough to propel the Red Wings into first place in the Atlantic Division. They’ll try to end their losing streak on Tuesday against the Nashville Predators.