Niklas Kronwall-1-16-14

If the Red Wings and defenseman Niklas Kronwall aren't careful, a playoff spot could elude their grasp.

(The Associated Press)

DETROIT – It has been nearly four weeks since the Detroit Red Wings played at Joe Louis Arena, where they haven’t fared well this season.

They face the Los Angeles Kings Saturday in the start of a season-long and eminently crucial five-game homestand. As they slide further down the pack of tightly grouped teams battling for playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, it’s time for the Red Wings to get their house in order.

Detroit is 6-10-7 at home, for a .413 winning percentage. This club hasn’t finished below .500 at home since 1985-86 (10-26-4).

“Look at the standings -- we’re in dogfight,” defenseman Kyle Quincey said. “If we want to be in the playoffs we’ve got to start winning, especially at home. We owe it to the fans. We feel we’re playing pretty solid and close to winning all these games. We need to stay the course and hopefully a few goals start going in.

“It’s a huge point of the season; we’re fighting for our lives right now.”

The Red Wings (20-17-10) were 11th in the East in points before Friday’s games. More importantly, they were fifth in the chase for two wild-card spots. But it’s tight – seven clubs were separated by just three points.

The Red Wings’ strong play on the road (14-7-3) has kept them afloat. But they can’t expect to maintain that .646 winning percentage away from home.

After going 2-3-0 during a five-game stretch on the road and coming off consecutive 1-0 losses (to Anaheim and the New York Rangers), coach Mike Babcock called the game against the Kings "huge."

“I thought our team played hard the last couple games but we didn’t win,” Babcock said. “We got to find a way to get some points. As you can see in the standings we’re not in a good situation. We got to get some traction and get going.”

The Red Wings’ most recent home game was their 3-2 shootout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium. Their last appearance at the Joe was a 3-0 loss to the New York Islanders on Dec. 23.

“Obviously, our home record hasn’t been as good, but (goaltender Jimmy Howard) wasn’t dialed in like he is right now, so that’s a huge part of having success with a group like we have right now,” Babcock said. “We don’t score great; we need awesome goaltending and we’ve been getting it.”

Howard has been outstanding in three of his past four starts, stopping 134-of-137 shots in those games (.978 save percentage), but he has only one win to show for it – 3-1 over the Kings last Saturday.

He figures to be opposing U.S. Olympic teammate Jonathan Quick once again.

“To me it doesn’t matter who is playing on the other end,” Howard said. “You always want to out-battle him and out-compete him to get your team a ‘W.’ (Saturday) is another great shot here with Quickie coming to town; he’s a great goalie and it’s going to take another great effort from all of us.”

They generated a lot of chances in Thursday’s loss to the Rangers but must cut down on the shots against.

“I thought we went to New York and played well; we just didn’t score,” forward Drew Miller said. “We had chances and goaltending, everyone battled hard, just came up short. But a lot of positives to bring back for this homestand.”

It’s a tough stretch against three of the top teams in the NHL (Los Angeles, St. Louis on Monday, Chicago on Wednesday), another club that is in a solid playoff position (Montreal next Friday) and a struggling team that has beaten them twice this season (Florida on Jan. 26).

Tomas Tatar returns on Saturday, after missing one game to attend his father's funeral in Slovakia. But none of their injured players are expected back (Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen, Daniel Alfredsson, Darren Helm, Joakim Andersson and Jonathan Ericsson).

Getting all or some of them back during this homestand will be pivotal.