Detroit Red Wings: An Early Look Into The Analytics
By Tyler Kotila
The Detroit Red Wings started the year on a high note, since then it has been a slow and steady negative trend, but what do the analytics say? SPOILER: The analytics tell a familiar narrative to Red Wings fans.
Currently, the Detroit Red Wings 3-6-0 on the season and have lost their last five games in a row. The common theme has been, the top line is putting up goals, and the goaltending is just nonexistent.
Taking a look at the analytics allows a better view of how players are performing, where they are being deployed, how “lucky they are getting, and how much value they are providing to the team besides their point numbers. The tools that are used to determine these things are Corsi, PDO, and Zone Starts, which are all being accounted for even-strength calculations.
The critical thing to note in this case, since the sample size is small, there’s not a ton of reliability in these stats as they will most likely change drastically over the course of the season. There is still value in these early season numbers since it shows the new trends for the Detroit Red Wings players, which could spur more effortless suggestions as to why the Red Wings are struggling, especially in the defensive zone.
The goaltending is easy to identify as a real issue, and the analytics will support this, but being able to be more efficient in the defensive zone will be a priority, these stats also show who is succeeding and who is struggling in their respective roles.
One of the common themes is how efficient, and reliable the Detroit Red Wings top line of Tyler Bertuzzi, Dylan Larkin, and Anthony Mantha have been to start the season. Something that has fallen under the radar in the wake of this success is Andreas Athanasiou‘s struggles on the second line to start the season, with a less than ideal start for him.
Defensively, there have been some issues; a trade brought in Alex Biega, who has only played in two games, so he was not considered for any of the analyses.
Other than that, let the numbers do the talking, the analytics provide more information and insights into why the Red Wings 2019-20 campaign has not opened up as most fans would have hoped. With the hope being that the Red Wings can be more competitive this season, they have not precisely found that yet, but only eight games in, there is plenty of time to change this.