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Honeymoon over? Legwand dropped to third line in Detroit

DavidLegwandDetroit

David Legwand’s first nine games in a Detroit uniform were pretty good -- he scored two goals and five assists, and was getting top-line minutes at center.

The last three games? Not so good.

Legwand is pointless with an ugly minus-6 rating, and Detroit has lost all three while managing to secure just one of a possible six points. For a team in the thick of a playoff chase, that’s not good enough -- and that’s partly why Legwand was dropped to the third line, getting just 12:36 of ice time in Thursday’s defeat to Montreal.

“So-so,” is how Legwand described his play with Detroit thus far, per the Macomb Daily. “There is room to improve and be better in certain areas in the game.”

Thursday’s minus-3 effort against was the straw that broke the camel’s back (or, more specifically, broke Legwand.) He’ll reportedly stay down on the third unit for Saturday’s big game against Toronto, skating alongside Daniel Alfredsson and Joakim Andersson.

“We didn’t play very good so we changed things during the game,” head coach Mike Babcock said. “We’re just staying with what we finished with.

“I didn’t think he was great [vs. Montreal] but he was in a club with some other veteran guys that weren’t very good either so you know we weren’t good enough any way you look at it.”

It’ll be interesting to see how Detroit and Legwand respond to this recent poor stretch, as the stakes are pretty high for both right now. The Wings are fighting to extend their postseason appearance streak to 23 seasons while Legwand, a pending UFA, is playing for a new contract.