ANAHEIM, Calif. -- When Nicklas Lidstrom was in the midst of the second-longest goal-scoring drought of his career and wasn't producing as much offense as he usually does, the Detroit Red Wings were not concerned.

They anticipated a familiar pattern unfolding.

"Every year I've been here, Nick has been better in the second half of the season," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said.

The Red Wings again are seeing Lidstrom's production increase in the second half. He has five goals and 19 points in his past 20 games, after collecting only one goal and 13 points in his first 37 games.

Babcock attributed the surge to the return of injured players such as Henrik Zetterberg, Valtteri Filppula and Dan Cleary.

"When you're a D-man and you're used to scoring and a lot of your points come on the power play and you don't have (as many) players to play with up front in the first 30 or 40 games and people are asking why you're not scoring, he's probably thinking to himself, 'Isn't it kind of obvious why I'm not scoring?' " Babcock said. "I think he's settled in and is playing well."

Lidstrom turns 40 on April 28, but it's premature to cite age as the cause for his low early season output, which included a 42-game stretch without a goal.

"The one thing with Swede (Lidstrom), you know what you're going to get night in and night out. He consistently plays at a high level," teammate Kris Draper said. "Everyone in this dressing room, when he doesn't score, we know exactly what he did that night, how great he was. He's just going to keep shooting and get opportunities.

"You figured once he got that one he was going to go on a roll. Hopefully, he gets hot and keeps shooting and pucks go in for him."

Lidstrom has been bothered by tendinitis in his right elbow the past couple years, but said that isn't the reason he wasn't shooting as much earlier in the season.

"When the puck wasn't going in for me, I continued to shoot, try to get shots on the net," Lidstrom said. "One goes in, and all the sudden, it seems to be coming in bundles. I just have to continue to shoot the puck and try to jump up at the right moment."

The Red Wings wrap up a four-game road trip Saturday afternoon at Los Angeles. Lidstrom has no points in the past three games, but his surge has moved him up to 12th in the NHL in points among defensemen. He has a reasonable chance to finish in the top 10 again.

"The great ones have another gear to go to that the rest of the players don't," Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said. "The first half of the year, everybody was writing and talking about where his game is at, but he's always been air-tight defensively. Part of the reason that he wasn't getting as many points was that we're not scoring as much as a team."

Offense only is one part of Lidstrom's game. Even when he wasn't scoring as much, he still was strong defensively. He has a plus-18 rating on a team that has allowed 13 more even-strength goals than it has scored. That is the seventh-best plus-minus rating in the league for a defenseman.

"He's just one of those guys, whatever his minutes are, you look back and he has the same demeanor," Draper said. "It's amazing how he carries himself. Now, he knows we're in a big push. Every night, he's going to see the other team's best line. He continues to do a great job for this hockey club."