After falling 3-2 to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday afternoon, the Detroit Red Wings are 1-2 to open the 2021 season. Through three games, there have been some good and some bad moments for this Wings team. Let’s talk about three major takeaways from the first three games.
The Second Forward Line Are the Real Stars
Bobby Ryan. Off the draw, back of the net. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/XqRE5N1kgA
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) January 18, 2021
With three goals in just two games, it would be easy to just write about Bobby Ryan. The Wings signed the 33-year-old free agent in October, and he’s looking primed for a career renaissance in Hockeytown. However, his veteran presence paired with Filip Zadina and Robby Fabbri (who was replaced by Michael Rasmussen on Monday) on the second forward line looks to be a winning combo. Ryan’s absolute snipe off the faceoff Monday afternoon was a beautiful goal. Also, he put one in the net after a beautiful pass from Zadina in Saturday’s win over Carolina.
BOBBY RYAN!
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) January 17, 2021
Our first of the season, his first as a Red Wing. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/6FBeU6xfg9
Zadina made a similar feed later in that game on Saturday to set up Robby Fabbri to score the game-winning goal. Red Wings fans like to talk a lot about the top forward line of Larkin, Mantha, and Bertuzzi as the main offensive stars. However, with the way Zadina, Ryan, and Fabbri seem to be building chemistry, that second line could very well form into the backbone of the offense.
The Wings Desperately Need a Defensive Star
It might seem a bit unfair to bring this up since it isn’t exactly something that can be quickly fixed. However, watching this Detroit team, it seems abundantly clear that there is a major lack of talent on the blue line. Ever since the retirement of Nicklas Lidstrom nearly a decade ago, the Wings have struggled to find another star defenseman. Niklas Kronwall was good enough to be the anchor of the defense for a while, but with him gone now as well, Detroit’s blue line is dang near pitiful.
Filip Hronek has potential and prospect Moritz Seider is making headlines, but who knows how long it will be before those guys even possibly become stars. In the meantime, guys like Patrik Nemeth and Marc Staal seem to just be filling up roster spots and probably wouldn’t be regular starters on a competitive team. There’s hope for a new blue line anchor in the future, but right now lack of any remote star talent on defense just feels sad.
Improving, But Slowly
Thursday’s season opener against Carolina was tough to watch, with the Wings unable to generate anything on offense and eventually getting shutout. Watching that game, it felt worrying to see this team looking just as bad as last season, which was a nightmare. However, they rebounded Saturday with an impressive win over the Hurricanes and played Columbus closely and competitively on Monday despite losing.
Despite it being a small sample size of games, I’m feeling hopeful that this team can be slightly more competitive in 2021 than in the past couple of seasons. They’ll probably still lose a lot of games, but watching these Wings on Saturday and Monday makes it seem like a decent amount of those losses won’t be blowouts. The goalie duo of Jonathan Bernier and Thomas Greiss has been decent so far and the offense has picked up since Thursday’s abysmal start. Maybe we are just a few steps away from Detroit really feeling like Hockeytown once again.
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