The Detroit Red Wings usurped the Nashville Predators for the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference standings with a 7-2 drubbing of the NHL's worst team, the Columbus Blue Jackets, on Monday night. The Red Wings have scored 12 goals in their last two games after only scoring 17 in their previous nine games.
The Red Wings' got it going offensively on Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes to snap a six-game losing streak and they're starting to get good news on the injury front; bring in the NHL's worst team and you could have probably expected what happened in the first period on Monday night. The Red Wings scored four goals in the game's first 10 minutes and have a 4-0 lead going into the second period against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Wings outshot Columbus 15-4 in the frame and got two power play goals from Tomas Holmstrom (both assisted by Henrik Zetterberg and Niklas Kronwall). Gustav Nyquist scored in between those goals for his first of his career, thanks to a beautiful feed from Pavel Datsyuk. Jiri Hudler added the fourth goal at the 9:51 mark on Valtterri Filppula's 40th assist of the season.
