Strange times in Hockeytown. The Detroit Red Wings have had to fight for a playoff spot through the final week of the regular season in two consecutive years and general manager Ken Holland struck out in free agency while trying to upgrade the defense. In fact, Detroit has not added one NHL-caliber name to its roster this summer.
Having the worst record of any of the sixteen playoff teams last season AND failing to make any roster upgrades this offseason, is Detroit's playoff streak destined to end in 2014-15?
Not so fast. There are plenty of reasons to believe that not only will the streak live on, Detroit will return to dominance in the near future.
Offense
The Red Wings were seventeenth in the NHL in goals scored last season, netting 222 pucks and averaging about 2.7 goals per game. Right in the middle of the pack.
The playoffs showed, however, that Detroit had issues scoring goals. Their only win against the Boston Bruins in the first round was a 1-0 shutout, thanks in large part to goaltender Jimmy Howard and a spectacular goal by Pavel Datsyuk. The rest of the series, goals were extremely scarce. Was it because of Boston's Tuukka Rask in net? Maybe, but Detroit is not a team that likes to make excuses.
If veteran right winger Daniel Alfredsson decides to return for one last season, he will be a part of the top six along with Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Gustav Nyquist and Stephen Weiss.
What some may not realize is that these six forwards missed a combined 197 games. 197. Not a typo. This averages out to an average of nearly 33 games per player. And these are not just random players - they are argubaly Detroit's six best forwards.
Alfredsson missed twelve games, Datsyuk and Zetterberg each missed 37, Franzen missed 28 and Weiss missed 56, all due to injury. Nyquist, who may have been the savior of the Red Wings' playoff streak, missed 25 games at the beginning of the season since there was not enough cap space to call him up from Grand Rapids.
Youngsters like Tomas Tatar, Riley Sheahan and Tomas Jurco also impressed last season, and having them for a full year will provide a huge boost to Detroit's offense. Also, top prospect Anthony Mantha may very well crack the roster this season.
The Red Wings may not have added any new players in the offseason to help the offense, but getting over the injury bug and having their stars back will provide more help than any free agent signing could have.
Defense
Probably the biggest issue last year for the Red Wings was their defense. There were way too many turnovers in front of the net, bad line changes and positioning errors.
Unfortunately, Holland was not able to sign a top free agent defenseman like Dan Boyle, Christian Ehrhoff or Matt Niskanen.
They will, however, get their No. 2 defenseman back. Jonathan Ericsson, who has been consistently improving his play in the past few seasons, missed 34 games last season and will be back to add more depth to the blue line.
Niklas Kronwall will once again anchor the defensive corps and young Danny DeKeyser will have a year of experience under his belt when he steps on the ice this year.
The back end of the defense is where it gets a little dicey. Brendan Smith has not lived up to the hype thus far, Jakub Kindl and Brian Lashoff seem to lack an intensity factor and are sometimes caught napping on the ice.
Also, Detroit's big free agent re-signing of Kyle Quincey will certainly help bolster the defensive co-...ok sorry, tough to say that without laughing.
Quincey was re-signed to a two-year, $8 million contract: a move which made little sense considering Quincey was a turnover machine and a definite minus player last year. Maybe he will turn things around, but it does not seem likely.
Detroit's youth could bail out the defense this year. Ryan Sproul and Xavier Ouellet came up from Grand Rapids to play together in last year's season finale in St. Louis and looked extremely impressive. It is possible that either could be an upgrade on Kindl, Lashoff or Quincey as soon as this season.
Goaltending
The situation in net could be a strength for the Red Wings this year. Starting goaltender Jimmy Howard is one of the league's better goaltenders, but had an off-year in 2013-14. He also struggled with - you guessed it - injuries. Howard missed 31 games and may have played some games while he was not 100%. If he can play like he did in 2012 and 2013, Detroit will be in very good shape.
When Howard was out, backup Jonas Gustavsson did an exceptional job of handling the reins. He finished the season with a 16-5-4 record and had a 2.63 goals against average. He also played in Games Four and Five against the Bruins in the playoffs and despite losing both, he performed well.
Also, prospect Petr Mrazek was quite impressive in his nine appearances last year, boasting a 1.74 goals against average and collecting two shutouts in six starts.
Special Teams
Special teams were somewhat of an issue for the Red Wings last season, but plenty of those struggles can be attributed to youth, inexperience and, once again, injuries.
The power play was eighteenth in the NHL and while that does not seem like too great of a number, Detroit still had a higher power play percentage than the Montreal Canadiens, Anaheim Ducks, Dallas Stars, San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings: all playoff teams.
The Red Wings should be a little better on the man advantage this year given that their top scorers are healthy and youngsters like Nyquist and Tatar are more experienced.
Detroit was twelfth in the NHL on the penalty kill despite the lack of experience and wealth of turnovers by defensemen, which is a good indicator for the future.
A healthy Darren Helm would bolster the penalty kill's statistics even more as he is one of the best PK men in the league. Realistically, though, Helm has been extremely injury-prone the past three seasons and he missed 40 games in 2013-14.
Coaching
Mike Babcock may indeed be the best coach in all of hockey. His contract situation is a bit murky right now, but all that matters at this moment is that he will be behind the Red Wings bench this season and will give the Red Wings an advantage in the coaching department nearly every game.
Who else could have led a team full of mainly AHL players to the playoffs last season?
Season Outlook
It seems as if it just would not be possible for the Red Wings to have as much rotten injury luck as last season. However, the health issues could have been a blessing in disguise. The youngsters got all sorts of playing time and experience and were very impressive; now imagine what they could do with the star players not only back on the ice but fully healthy.
The Red Wings should be expected to score more goals than they did last year and see significant improvements on the power play.
If the defense can get better and Jimmy Howard can play up to his full potential, Detroit should have no problem returning to the playoffs for a 24th-consecutive season.
Predicted Finish: 45-27-10 (100 points), third in Atlantic Division