With just two weeks to go until Christmas, we're smack-dab in the middle of the holiday season, but it's going to be a blue, blue, blue Christmas for some NHL teams in a couple of weeks.
Let's start with the Red Wings, who are mired in a 12-game losing streak and have fallen a staggering 29 points behind the Atlantic Division-leading Bruins in a season that’s basically two months old. And the Devils are another Eastern Conference also-ran who sit far outside the playoff picture.
Over in the west, the Blackhawks and Kings are the cellar-dwellers, and unless they start to gain ground in the standings, some of these teams could already be thinking they'll be sellers in this season of giving with Christmas break still just about two weeks down the line.
Meanwhile at the other end of the standings, the Bruins had been flying high, but their first three-game losing streak since March has cost them their lofty perch at the top of the heap.