Detroit Red Wings better than expected halfway through season
Dec 27, 2014; Ottawa, Ontario, CAN; Detroit Red Wings right wing Gustav Nyquist (14) celebrates with teammates after scoring the winning goal against the Senators in overtime at the Canadian Tire Centre. The Red Wings won 3-2 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports
The Detroit Red Wings are 20-10-9 half way through the season. They are sitting in 3rd in the Atlantic division and 5th in the Eastern Conference in the league. The Red Wings are a lot better than most people thought they would be at the start of the season.
The Red Wings last season got into the playoffs for the 23rd straight year, but by the skin of their teeth. They played the Boston Bruins in the first round, which no one was picking them to win. They managed to win the first game, but then lost 4 straight to be knocked out of the playoffs.
Injuries and poor play from big players plagued the team last season. The Olympic break hurt more than helped the Red Wings. Center Henrik Zetterberg was lost until the playoffs due to a back injury he got while playing with team Sweden at the Olympics.
Goalie Jimmy Howard a terrible season last year. He posted a record of 21-19-11 and a 2.66 GAA which was his highest since the 2010-2011 season. Fans were not supportive of Howard and throughout the season people called for him to be sent down or waived.
So why are these Red Wings doing better than most people expected them to be?
Lack of big time injury
Okay it is still early in the season, but the Red Wings players have stayed considerably healthier than they were all last season. Pavel Datsyuk missed two weeks at the start of the season with a shoulder injury, but even in his absence, the team continued to stay afloat.
Other than Datsyuk, minor injuries to players hasn’t been a monkey wrench in the Red Wings season. Really if anything has been a monkey wrench, it would be games that end up going into overtime or shootouts. Hopefully the team can keep up the healthy streak in the second half of the season.
Jimmy Howard bouncing back between the pipes
Jimmy Howard wasn’t selected for the United States Olympic team and that probably only made him feel worse in the middle of one of his worst seasons as a Red Wing. Fans across all social media sites were calling for a change in goal and that Howard had to go.
Thankfully the Red Wings organization doesn’t listen to message boards. Howard has 15 wins on the season, 2 being shutouts, and is second among goalies in the NHL with a 2.08 GAA. He also is fifth best in save percentage with .921. Howards bounce back season has been helping the Red Wings stay at the top of the division and those once complaining fans are now mostly all cheering for him again.
The young guns are showing
The Red Wings are a team that keeps their prospects in the AHL for awhile to let them grow and turn into well molded players. This season a young roster full of those same players who have played 2 plus seasons in the AHL are helping the team in many ways.
Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist both are second in scoring only behind Zetterberg and Datsyuk. Danny Dekeyser has also been a young player growing into his role on the big team. He looks to be the replacement for Niklas Kronwall and if he keeps his play up, fans will be happy throughout his career.
If anything is proven through this season, it is that the Detroit Red Wings system works. Some teams go through rebuild years, some team go into their rebuild years and then never get out of them. No team dominates all the time, it is just impossible. Yet with the Red Wings, I don’t think have really gone through a rebuild year since like the early 80’s when Steve Yzerman was drafted. If anything those few years in which Yzerman was drafted probably was the last legit rebuild year for the Red Wings.
They have a streak of making the playoffs 23 years in a row, that says something for any team. Even though they made the playoffs last season, maybe that was the teams in a sense “rebuild” year. Only really good organizations can have rebuild years in years when they still make the playoffs. Hopefully the Red Wings can keep their season going and make it 24 years in a row to the playoffs.