The Detroit Red Wings are close to breaking an abysmal record that hasn't been set since 1980.
Despite taking a 2-0 lead over the New Jersey Devils at Little Caesars Arena today, the Detroit Red Wings ran afoul of the on-ice officials and made several trips to the penalty box, which the Devils took full advantage of.
But as if being ranked 32nd out of 32 NHL teams in terms of penalty killing wasn't enough, the Red Wings are on the verge of a historically bad penalty killing efficiency.
Detroit's penalty killing has only managed to successfully turn aside 66.1% of opposition power plays, a worse percentage than the NHL's all-time mark of futility set by the 1979-80 Los Angeles Kings with a 68.2 percentage.
How did they arrive at this point this afternoon?
Not only did the Devils score a controversial goal just nine seconds into the penalty to cut Detroit's lead in half, but they also immediately scored again thanks to the Red Wings remaining on the power play after losing the coach's challenge for goaltender interference.
Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde issued the challenge on the basis of the replays showing New Jersey's Stefan Noesen interfering with goaltender Cam Talbot at the top of the crease.
But after a lengthy video review, the officials determined the goal to be of legal nature, which automatically put Detroit right back on the penalty kill thanks to the failed coach's challenge.
Unfortunately, that was just the beginning for Detroit.
Ben Chiarot was whistled for a four-minute double minor as time expired in the second period, meaning that the Devils were going to begin the third period on an extended power play.
Jack Hughes made them pay, scoring New Jersey's third power play goal of the year and dealing another blow to Detroit's NHL-worst penalty killing.
The season still has plenty of time yet, but the fact that Detroit would finish with the NHL's worst penalty killing rate in history if the year ended today is concerning.
| POLL | ||
What overall ranking will the penalty killing of the Detroit Red Wings be at the year's end? | ||
| 1st through 10th | 5 | 6.7 % |
| 11th through 20th | 7 | 9.3 % |
| 21st through 29th | 39 | 52 % |
| 30th through 32nd | 24 | 32 % |
| List of polls | ||
