-- In a mistake-filled game, I'll bet you're curious what the one mistake that Coach Mike Babcock singled out afterwards. Andreas Lilja stepping up in the neutral zone, missing his target, creating a 2-on-1 for Boston. That led to the Bruins' first goal.

It was a bad one by Lilja. Niklas Kronwall didn't help any by skating too deep and letting the pass get through to Blake Wheeler. Ty Conklin was playing the shot and Michael Ryder as he should, so he had no chance on Wheeler.

"I thought we played pretty good through two periods," said Babcock. "We made a mistake on their first goal. We stepped up in the neutral zone. They got a 2-on-1 and buried it in the net. I don't think Ty was responsible for that."

Babcock has talked about this throughout his four seasons in Detroit. He would rather a defenseman closes the gap than step up like that.

-- Kronwall letting that Ryder pass through wasn't his worst moment. How can you get stripped of the puck while waiting on the end boards for a breakout to set up? For that matter, why wait near the corner instead of taking it behind the net? Just a bad, bad mistake by Kronwall leading to the Bruins' third goal.

-- Jiri Hudler battled well tonight. Other than the goal, he stepped up nicely and intercepted a Boston pass late in the third period to create a scoring chance. Hudler was fighting well in corners for the puck and winning a lot of his battles.

-- I don't think I've ever seen Pavel Datsyuk knocked down as much as he was in this game. The Zdeno Chara hit was a huge one. But Datsyuk was banged around a lot of other times as well.

-- The bottom line is it points out how spoiled we are as Red Wings fans when a 4-1 loss stands out like this and errors seem enormous. This is a run-of-the-mill game for most teams in half of their contests.

BOSTON -- Derek Meech was joking … wasn't he?

"I'll play goal if that gets me in the game," said Meech.

That's not likely to happen. What has happened, however, is Meech -- a life-long defenseman -- has been inserted into the Detroit Red Wings' lineup as a forward. Saturday night against the Bruins, Meech played his sixth straight game up front.

Meech did play a handful of games at forward last season as well as a few games up front when he was a 16-year-old rookie in juniors.

The reason for Meech being played at forward for half of his 12 games this season can be traced back to July 2. That's when the Red Wings signed Marian Hossa as a free agent, ensuring that Detroit would be pressed tight against the top of the NHL's salary cap all season long.

In fact, the Wings are so tight to the cap that they've carried just 22 players all season -- one less than the roster limit.

So when forwards like Tomas Holmstrom (back spasms) and Darren McCarty (groin strain) go down with injuries, the Red Wings are simply out of forwards to throw over the boards.

Meech, the team's 24-year-old spare defenseman, fills the void.

"As a young kid, you don't want to just follow the team around practicing," said Detroit coach Mike Babcock. "So the more he can get in the lineup, the better it is for him and long-term the better for us."

Meech has skated on the fourth line, which means that ice time is doled out in small portions. In four of Meech's first five games up front this season, he played less than 10 minutes.

"It's an adjustment," said Meech. "I think it's important for me being on that fourth line to go out there and get that energy going. I need to get myself into the game because you never know when that next shift is going to be. I just have to get in there early. I'm starting to realize that now. Try to fire the boys up early with some energy."

As for the nuts and bolts of the position, covering the opposition point in the Detroit defensive zone has proved to be the toughest adjustment for Meech because it's the most foreign thing for someone trained as a defenseman. Forwards often have their back to point men and playing with your back to the opposition isn't something that defensemen often do.

"That sort of thing, defensemen never do," said Meech. "That's the biggest adjustment, being in the right spot in the defensive zone. Knowing that as a 'D', I'm coming down to hammer that forward. I'm just trying to keep my head up, stop the puck and not let it go to the point."