Despite Friday night’s disappointing 5-2 home loss at the hands of the streaking Anaheim Ducks, there was some upside to the latest valley in the 14 game roller coaster the Detroit Red Wings have endured through the first month of this shortened regular season.
Throughout this week’s two losses to the St. Louis Blues and the Ducks, 22 year-old forward
Tomas Tatar has shown that he appears ready to emerge and make the full-time jump from Grand Rapids to Detroit. In particular, his combination of speed and youthful exuberance, both aspects this forward group sorely lacks, has been a welcome addition to the lineup.
Detroit’s roller coaster ride has been accentuated with injuries, with
Johan Franzen and
Pavel Datsyuk the latest to fall victim to the injury bug impacting Detroit’s uneven start to the season. With these injuries and the other ailments the Wings have dealt with, it has opened the door for several youngsters from Grand Rapids to attempt to seize the opportunity provided to them and illustrate to Detroit’s coaching staff and management they are ready to contribute at the NHL level on a consistent basis. In addition to Tatar,
Brian Lashoff,
Joakin Andersson,
Gustav Nyquist and
Petr Mrazek have all been given a chance to rise to the forefront.
As a result, the likes of
Daniel Cleary,
Todd Bertuzzi and
Mikael Samuelsson might be considered to be aging pieces to the puzzle that can no longer be relied on come the off-season.
Whereas on Wednesday vs. St. Louis, the Red Wings were rightfully penalized by losing the extra point in overtime after getting outplayed over the final two periods of play after dominating the opening 19 minutes, Detroit likely deserved a better fate on Friday night against the Ducks. To their credit, Anaheim converted on the defensive zone and neutral zone turnovers by the Red Wings defense, leading to their three unanswered goals after falling behind 2-1 to the Griffins (Andersson, Tatar) in Detroit. In fact, each Anaheim goal (aside from the empty netter), was directly attributable to a specific error/gaffe by the Red Wings.
The second period was a microcosm of Detroit’s season to date. Only 26 seconds after Andersson scored his first NHL goal to give Detroit a 1-0 lead,
Henrik Zetterberg and
Brian Lashoff got mixed up on their coverage of a defensive zone face-off, leading to a wide open
Matt Beleskey in the slot alone to knot the game up at one goal apiece.
Sixty-five seconds after Tatar restored Detroit’s one goal advantage,
Ian White had the misfortune of having his stick break while attempting a breakout pass from behind his own goal, resulting in Corey Perry beating Howard to tie the game at 2.
Early in the third period, a lazy
Niklas Kronwall pass into the neutral zone was mishandled by
Valteri Filppula resulting on a two-on-one rush that
Andrew Cogliano redirected past Howard after
Jakub Kindl got caught out of position on the breakout. Anaheim’s insurance marker from
Bobby Ryan was a direct result of
Ian White’s careless neutral zone flip pass getting knocked down near the Red Wing bench during a line change, leading to Ryan converting the scoring chance that ensued.
Perhaps this is what Red Wing fans need to get accustomed to the ups and downs of a .500 hockey club. After the uninspiring start to the season which saw a blowout loss in St. Louis, an uninspiring shootout win against the Bluejackets and a poor home loss to Dallas, the Wings responded by grabbing seven of eight points over their next four games. They followed that up with two ugly losses at Columbus and home to Calgary. They rebounded by hammering St. Louis on the road and two tough home wins last weekend. Well, I think you get my point.
The scary part for Red Wing fans is that there have been many positives thus far on the season. In addition to the emergence of the youngsters from Grand Rapids, Detroit’s top three players (Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Howard) have all played well thus far this season.
Damien Brunner has added some much needed scoring to the Red Wings top line. The 4th line of Miller-Emmerton-Tootoo have played relatively well as a unit.
The biggest disappointments for Detroit thus far in addition to the plethora of injuries the Wings have had to deal with, has been the play of
Valteri Filppula,
Daniel Cleary and
Niklas Kronwall.
Filppula who is in his final year of a five-year contract with unrestricted free agency on the horizon could stand to make some serious coin this summer. However, at the rate he is playing thus far this season, he is not doing himself many favors given his inconsistent play to date. Yes, he may be dealing with the side effects of a knee injury he sustained during the lockout while playing in Europe. Yet, the Red Wings need him to be playing at the level he was at last season, if they are to be a playoff team. To date, those performances have been few and far between.
Daniel Cleary has been a disappointment to date with only one goal and zero assists in all 14 games. Even seeing additional time alongside Datsyuk or Zetterberg hasn’t gotten Cleary on track offensively. Although he isn’t being asked to score like a bonafide top-six winger, the Red Wings feel he is capable of scoring at a better rate than we have seen this year and last. He can provide the Red Wings with some other things often times not seen on a score sheet (good net presence), but his lack of offense thus far and minus-four rating certainly leaves plenty left to be desired out of Daniel Cleary.
Which brings us to the play of
Niklas Kronwall. Although his offensive numbers have received a boost given his new spot on the point of the first power-play unit, his team-worst -9 rating through the opening 14 games certainly isn’t a positive.
I realize plus/minus is a “quirky” statistic that shouldn’t be used solely to judge a player’s performance. Yes, Kronwall faces the opposition’s top offensive players each night and leads the Red Wings in time on ice at just over 24 minutes per game.
But I also know few playoff teams that have their #1 rearguard with the worst plus/minus on their own respective team.
Bottom line, the Red Wings need Kronwall to improve his play. The imminent return of
Carlo Colaiacovo and
Brendan Smith may help ease the burden on his shoulders. GM Ken Holland mentioned they are 7-10 days away from returning to the lineup.
So with that, the Red Wings hope to rectify things by hitting the road for a two-game trip to Minnesota and Nashville.
Some interesting tidbits from Saturday‘s practice before the Red Wings head to Minneapolis-St. Paul:
Petr Mrazek will get his second NHL start on Sunday vs. the Wild.
Mikael Samuelsson will also return to the lineup on Sunday after missing 12 games with a groin issue.
Meanwhile,
Todd Bertuzzi and
Darren Helm are both sidelined with back injuries, with Fox Sports Detroit’s Ken Daniels mentioning last night that Bertuzzi is out for at least 3 weeks, while Helm’s timetable is unknown.
No definitive word on
Jan Mursak’s return from his shoulder injury, although he appears to be getting closer.
Johan Franzen is dealing with a strained hip flexor and likely won’t return until Thursday night vs. Columbus at the earliest.
Pavel Datsyuk did not skate today and remains questionable for Sunday vs. Minnesota, as he deals with a “nagging, upper-body injury”.
Gustav Nyquist was reassigned to Grand Rapids.
Jonas Gustavsson was reassigned to Grand Rapids for a conditioning stint and will play goal Sunday afternoon for the Griffins' home game vs. the Charlotte Checkers.
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