There isn’t much reason to expect a better result than Tuesday’s contest versus Winnipeg. The Wings simply haven’t been able to put together a 60 minute effort and 3 goals in 2 minutes was the result. The inability to recover from mistakes is a problem that has been magnified in a 12 game losing streak. Cholowski, Bowey and Hirose are all in Grand Rapids. McIlrath and Zadina were recalled for tonight’s contest. Zadina has 3 assists in 4 games.
Detroit will have to be a different team in nearly every facet. Goaltending, defense, offense and special teams are all weaknesses right now. Players are searching for answers and they’re not easy to find. Athanasiou is still out, Larkin is questionable. This is a road that gets more rocky as time goes on.
There are increased calls for a change, but increased silence from the front office. Ansar Khan noted that Yzerman isn’t responding to interview requests. The poor results are as much to do with on ice talent as coaching. Tweaks aren’t going to help. Mantha is still out, and his absence is weighty.
Last year, Detroit had a stronger finish to the year, and ended up finishing 3rd from the bottom. Even then fans complained that a 4th overall pick would have been worth it and were frustrated by some of the wins. Those same fans aren’t dissatisfied at this point, but many others are.
At nearly the halfway point of the season, Yzerman seems to be more certain of which pieces are going to aid in the future and who is going to be moving on. With the new scrutiny on the personal behavior of coaches, it will be even less likely that Detroit moves on from Blashill unless a long term coaching candidate becomes available. The due diligence that GMs need to do on their own staff has increased significantly.
Rest assured, changes are coming. A very important trade deadline is nearing and Yzerman will be listening to offers. This losing stint could continue to stretch on for a bit as the few top line players Detroit had are all heading toward injury. If Larkin and/or Bertuzzi go down, things will not get better. That said, Yzerman has not overcommitted the organization and the worst contracts at the end of this year will be Abdelkader and Nielsen. There are a lot of decisions to be made.
There is no way to feel good about what is happening, and no one should be expected to. The cold hard reality is that this is the cost of many years of post season entries. It’s not something Detroit has had to deal with in decades. Along with the players, writers following this team are simply out of answers as to how this will end up for the next half of a season.
Remember this time and this pain. When things turn around, and they will, it will be in part because of the high price of rebuilding that was paid. We can only trust that Yzerman will do his best with the opportunities as they present themselves to build this team into a contender.
Tomorrow we will look back at the game to see if there was any progress for Detroit, or if there was another step toward a guaranteed 31st place finish. I look forward to the comments from a passionate group that wants to see better days for Detroit.