Red Wings deal Bolts latest shutout loss

Tampa Bay's season is dangerously close to dropping into oblivion again.

Tampa Bay's stretch of games with only one win reached 11 on Thursday after falling 3-0 to Detroit, dropping Tampa Bay's record to 1-12-1 all-time at Joe Louis Arena. The shutout loss is the fourth time in the past 10 games the Lightning have been kept off the board.

With four games complete on a season-long, six-game road trip, Tampa Bay is 0-3-1 and has been shut out twice.

The latest loss comes following a game in which Tampa Bay felt some momentum had been built up despite a 7-4 loss in Nashville. And it came against an undermanned Detroit team that featured seven regulars out of the lineup to start the game, a number that climbed to eight after a Mattias Ohlund hit knocked out Red Wings star Henrik Zetterberg in the first period.

"It's beyond embarrassing, obviously it's been a while since getting a win and frustration is setting in and it's affecting the way we're playing," goaltender Mike Smith said. "We have to stop this, we are right there with a couple of wins here and we're right back in there. But if we don't stop making the same mistakes we've made forever, we don't stand a chance.

"It's part of being a professional hockey player, stuff you learn when you are young. If we continue to make these mistakes, we will not win hockey games, we won't have a chance. We don't have a good enough team to make these mistakes and win. We have good players in here and we can be a good team, but until we figure it out, we're not."

Although the Lightning, technically, are easily within striking distance of climbing out of 14th place and back into playoff contention with a couple of victories, it doesn't feel like this team right now has that kind of a run in it after the stretch of games the past month.

"This slide has to stop, this is a crucial month," Marty St. Louis said. "December and January are the hardest months. The window of the slide, right now we are pretty much in the danger zone. We are playing some good teams (on the road trip), but the way we are losing, we are beating ourselves."

Former Lightning forward Drew Miller, who had no points in 14 games with Tampa Bay before being waived on Nov. 10, put Detroit on the board first with a highlight reel goal. Defenseman Brian Rafalski sent a line-drive pass from inside his end to Miller at the Lightning blue line. Miller knocked the puck out of the air and broke in alone on Smith, who tried to poke check Miller but missed as he flipped the puck over a sprawling Smith just as Miller went flying into the air at 8:24.

The Lightning were in the game, but after going 0-for-5 on the power play and losing defensive zone coverage in the third that led to goals by Todd Bertuzzi and Patrick Eaves, the only drama was whether Jimmy Howard would get his shutout.

"We're down 1-0 and we're right there where one bounce and we tie the game, then we make a couple of bonehead plays, they end up costing you right now," Smith said.

"When you are struggling to win and struggling to score goals, those mistakes we have been making all year are costing us big time. And if we don't stop making them, we are never going to get out of this funk, it's going to be a long year, and it already has been."