Interestingly- and thankfully -the B's began their first step in turning around their home ice debacle. The team is now 2-5-1 at home. And a 3-1 victory over a decent DET team is a good start towards fixing the problem(s). However, it is not enough to sit back and show us that they can. Rather, they must do...and we know they can.
Right now, there is a log-jam in the middle of the conference. It's time to start pulling away from the pack and not get left behind (i.e. like last year) because they decided not to play 60 minutes over here; took a stupid penalty over there; etc, etc...
Here's my take: Any team that can put the puck in the net like they are doing should be winning more games, particularly with a goalie who has maintained close to a 2.00 GAA for the past 5 years. And don't blame the defense, as Gustavsson has played well. In fact, look for teh defense to improve, as the season rolls on. It's not enough that Rask has a decent game. He needs to be consistently good. Last night, he played OK...made 22 saves...not a lot, but sufficient for the 3-1 win.
Bottom line: when a team/players slumps, they need to be consistently good just to make up for the slump...which gets them back to .500. This is not sufficient. You slump; you pay. And the payment is a winning streak that surpasses the slump in terms of wins. There's a tendency to ride a winning streak that simply gets the team back in it. However, if it does not continue from that point, they just fall back out of contention, again. And at that junction, what did the winning streak really prove? That they can win games if/when they play hard? Methinks it's much easier to be consistently good, as opposed to playing slump against (winning) streak...and a lot less stressful.
Ramble at ya latah...cheers!