Detroit Red Wings Fighting Injury Better this Season

Jan 13, 2015; Buffalo, NY, USA; Detroit Red Wings goalie Petr Mrazek (34) looks to make a save during the second period against the Buffalo Sabres at First Niagara Center. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

When Jimmy Howard went down with an injury, many thought that until he returned the Detroit Red Wings would struggle to stay competitive. A week into a Howardless team, the Red Wings are actually not doing so bad. In fact, in the three games since Howard went down, they haven’t lost a game.

This isn’t saying the team is this highly better team without Howard, it is saying however that the team can fight adversity of injuries, which many teams sometimes fall victim to. At the start of the season you alway hope your team doesn’t have any major injuries throughout the season.

The Pittsburgh Penguins fans at this point in the season are probably pulling their hair out with all the injuries their team has faced. Yet like the Red Wings, they have managed to still win games and have a similar record to the Red Wings.

The defending Stanley Cup Champion L.A. Kings have been injury riddled and they haven’t faced adversity as well. The Kings lost Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson. They are sitting 9th in the overall Western Conference standings which would mean that the Kings, wouldn’t be making the playoffs if they started today.

Basically, injuries suck for any team and they can make or break a team. With the Penguins, they have gotten lucky in the sense that the injuries haven’t happened to players like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury. The Kings while not as many injuries as the Penguins, lost their playmakers and play in considerably the much harder conference.

Yet the Red Wings haven’t really suffered when it has come to their injuries this season. The team started the season without Pavel Datsyuk, in his absence, Henrik Zetterberg and the younger players stepped up big time.

Last season when the team was hit with injuries, the team also saw losing game streaks and not very good play from most of it’s players. Zetterberg was lost after the Olympics until the playoffs and Howard also was in and out with injuries. The team barely got into the playoffs and was knocked out fairly easily by the Boston Bruins.

However this season has been much better for the team when they have had to deal with injuries. Credit for the 3 game win streak can almost fully be attributed to Petr Mrazek and how he has stepped up in his role. Against the hottest team in the National Hockey League the Nashville Predators Mrazek stopped 34 shots. With the win he goes to 8-3-1 on the season.

Having a good goalie is important in hockey. Not many teams are winning the Stanley Cup giving up 4 to 5 goals a game. They would be having to out score the team far too much, and just isn’t practical. However with a good goalie, you need at least a decent back up. Not a guy who is going to win every single time he goes out there but he is going to give you a good shot to win the game.

That is what Mrazek is to this team. Yet, he will only get better where he could be the starting goalie at some point in the future. The net belongs to Jimmy Howard in the end, but, Mrazek makes it so that if Howard isn’t around that the team will be okay without him.

The Detroit Red Wings look to continue their hot streak tonight as they take on the Buffalo Sabres at 8pm on NBCS.

What do you think? Should Howard get his job right back when he comes back from injury? Should he have to wait until Mrazek loses it? Let us know below.