The Detroit Red Wings now look to their next game for redemption.

They skid into Saturday's matchup against the Buffalo Sabres on a seven-game losing streak, and while they've been crashing, the Sabres have surged. The Wings (33-27-6) are in a tight race with a handful of teams, including the Sabres, for the two wild-card berths in the Eastern Conference.

They have 16 games left, and more performances like Thursday's at Little Caesars Arena that left fans booing will mean an early spring.

"It's unacceptable," David Perron said after losing 4-1 to the Arizona Coyotes, less than a week after a 4-0 loss in the desert. "As tough as it gets right now in the room, we have to find a way to bounce back, we have to find a way to get up and put our pride on the line and be better."

WHAT IS GOING ON? Red Wings weren't as good as January suggested. But are they 6-game-skid bad?

From the get-go, the Wings didn't look like a team trying to distance itself from losing.

"We didn't have jump tonight," coach Derek Lalonde said. "There's no doubt it felt like they had a little bit better legs. It's probably a little bit of us pressing. I think our guys want it so much."

The Wings have been outscored, 36-12, during the skid. They've missed Dylan Larkin, but as good as he is, one player should not make such a difference.

"It's not just Larks," Ben Chiarot said. "Defensively, you see the chances that we give up, the breakdowns that we have. When we've been playing well this year, those chances aren't happening or aren't happening as frequently as they are right now. That's what I see — I see too many chances given up. It puts too much stress on what we are doing defensively. It's costing us."

Those mistakes were on display in full form Tuesday when the Wings lost, 7-3, in Buffalo. The Wings have been stuck at 72 points since last winning on Feb. 27, and the Sabres have crept up to reach 69 points. The New York Islanders entered Friday in the second wild-card spot at 72 points (with a game in hand on Detroit), and the Washington Capitals (69 points) are also hanging on.

How the Wings couldn't muster a better start against the Coyotes was hard to explain.

"It's frustrating," Lalonde said. "At times we had some jump, we had some zone time. It's just really frustrating. They only had two chances in the third and one was gifted. We only gave up a couple in the second. It's just frustrating in that we were much better in some aspects of the game. We had some looks, but again, some of the areas of our game found us especially for the second and third goal."

The Wings converted on one of their four power plays, and while a 25% conversion rate is in and of itself good, all the man advantages were in the first 35 minutes of the game, when the Wings needed to use them to generate momentum.

"We got a power play goal but we weren't sharp," Lalonde said. "We gave up one so it's 1-1. It was like momentum lost off it. And then we had some zone time, we had some looks — I still think we can be more simple, we have to get more pucks to the net. We just had some pucks at the point that we let die."

Larkin isn't projected to be back before next week at the earliest. In the meantime, the Wings are left to figure out how to spark a little confidence.

"Got to get back at it in practice, find a way to turn the page," Perron said. "Zero in the next game and go at it. Why not do it against the Sabres? We have to find a way to put a sound, solid game for 60 minutes that we can hang our hat to and be proud of at the end of the night."

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her @helenestjames.

Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from  Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings desperate for answers; 'unacceptable' skid now at 7