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They Are What You Thought They Were |
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As their favorite team closes out the NHL campaign at home Saturday against the Buffalo Sabres, delusional Detroit Red Wings fans are suffering from what can best be described as Florida Panthers syndrome. They are allowing a string of meaningless late-season victories to gloss over a turd of a season and let them believe only roses and bouquets await this team next season
Last season, after a dismal, below-.500 first half, the Panthers won 28 of their final 35 games, barely missed the playoffs, and everyone projected great things for the franchise in 2018-19.
As this season comes to a conclusion, the Panthers are 10th in the Eastern Conference and out of the playoffs by a double-digit points margin. Things didn’t get better, and Florida failed to qualify for postseason play for the third straight spring, sixth time in seven seasons and 16th time in 18 campaigns.
Sure, it’s okay to get excited about the play of what the Wings are dubbing their Big Four of young, emerging talent - forwards Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Andreas Athanasiou and Tyler Bertuzzi.
At the same time, you can’t overlook the many flaws that still inhibit this club, from sloppy defensive-zone work, to veteran players with declining ability weighing them down through big contracts.
It’s easy to forget how many nights the salve for these issues was the stellar goaltending of Jimmy Howard.
“The biggest reason why we’re winning right now is our young guys have been excellent and we’ve gotten very good goaltending,” Wings coach Jeff Blashill said..
There’s much that remains in need of repair before this club can be considered a legitimate playoff threat. And if you don’t believe it, here’s a member the team to tell you exactly, that, veteran forward Thomas Vanek.
“At the end of the day I believe you are what you are,” Vanek told Mlive.com. “Every team’s gonna look back and be like, ‘Oh we shoulda had this game, we coulda got this game.’ But then you look at and say there’s four or five games we won because our goaltender was great. It always evens out.
“When you’re a good team, it usually evens out better for you. We are where we are, which is okay. Be realistic, get better in the summer. There’s a lot of good players in here but each and every one can prepare a little better, do a little more and be better next year. It’s as simple as that.”
Even Blashill isn’t ready to invest much currency into their 6-2 run over the past eight games and buy into the notion that his team will be a playoff club in 2019-20.
“Obviously we don’t have lots of pressure on us, so it can be a tricky thing this time of year when you don’t have lots of pressure,” Blashill said.
When it meant something, when the Wings needed to win to stay in the playoff hunt, they failed the test.
Ultimately, in the grand scheme of things, that’s what matters most.
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Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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