A Cruel Return to Dallas for Mo

His #9 will one day hang from the rafters of the American Airlines Center, but of all the memories Mike Modano has had in the building, this would rank among the most forgettable.

The Dallas Stars franchise's greatest on-ice servant received a classy standing ovation from the locals but that proved to be the highlight of his night as the Red Wings skated to a 4-1 drubbing at the hands of his former team-mates.

From the get-go nothing seemed to go right for Detroit. Whilst only sporting a 1-0 deficit at the first break, the signs weren't good. A horrible Lidstrom turnover and a Franzen injury... uh oh!

But the second frame was where it got ugly.

The puck seemed to bounce off skates and in on one end, but just couldn't do likewise at the other. Throw in some sloppy coverage and a puck or two off the post, and you got a 4-0 game after two.

Osgood was not good, but neither was anyone else. A consolation PP goal in the third period gave the Wings a semblance of respectability on the scoreboard but not much else.

Moving forward it didn't look to be getting any better. Franzen's concussion was never good news and just to make things worse, Daniel Cleary crashed into the boards in practise earlier today. The updated diagnoses of both were good however, as Franzen said he felt good today and hopes to be able to go Saturday night against the Coyotes and Dan Cleary's knee injury scare appears to be just that... a scare.

It was looking for a while like the Wings may have been forced to dress 16 or 17 skaters in Phoenix, hopefully that's not the case. A reprieve from this tumultuous tackle with the injury bug will go a long way to getting the Red Wings back to winning form.