To make matters worse, it dragged on like a rainy baseball game.
After two of their self-proclaimed better efforts of the season coming out of the All-Star break, the New York Islanders turned up lame in Detroit on Saturday afternoon, allowing a couple of late first-period mistakes to drain the life out of their legs and send them on the way to a Zamboni-delayed and timeout-memorial 5-1 loss to the Red Wings.
Things didn't begin so ugly -- the Islanders actually outshot the Wings 10-5 in the first period -- but they sure spiraled away quickly.