Okay, the title might be a bit of an exaggeration. However, hockey fans in Detroit are probably starting to feel this way. With an embarrassing 5-1 loss to Tampa Bay on Wednesday, the Red Wings extended their losing streak to seven. As the team is just at the beginning of a more than week-long road trip, the end of the losing streak could still be a little ways away.
What’s Wrong With the Detroit Red Wings?
This is a loaded question, because there is a lot wrong with this team. The main issue, as I’ve written about before, is the lack of offense. Detroit is second to last in the entire NHL in GF/GP, averaging just 1.91 goals per game through eleven contests.
New captain Dylan Larkin leads the team in points with nine. His top line-mates Tyler Bertuzzi and Anthony Mantha are behind him with seven apiece. It’s never the worst scenario to have your top forward line being the team points leaders. Although, their numbers aren’t nearly enough to have them among the top-tier forwards in the league. Fans in Hockeytown want to believe that these are the guys that can lead Detroit back to the promised land. However, if their production doesn’t ramp up, the rebuild might have to last longer than initially planned.
As I’ve also stated previously, coaching has been and still is a major issue for this hockey club. There wasn’t much sense in firing head coach Jeff Blashill before a shortened season where it was known Detroit wouldn’t be seriously competing. With how the team has performed in the last couple of seasons, and this season so far especially, there’s absolutely no reason why Blashill should be brought back for 2021-22. He may have had success in the AHL and been a hit among young players, but it’s abundantly clear after almost six season that he’s just not fit to lead an NHL team to success.
The Immediate Future
Finding a new head coach and figuring out if your potential stars really can become successful are both issues for later on. Let’s focus on what’s coming up in the next week or so for the Detroit Red Wings.
The Wings stay in Tampa Friday night for another showdown against the defending Stanley Cup champs. Detroit then remains in the sunshine state for another two-game series beginning on Sunday against the Florida Panthers. The Wings played the Panthers close in two games last weekend, losing both times by just one goal. The road trip then concludes with two games next Thursday and Saturday against the Predators in Nashville.
Obviously, the Detroit Red Wings will win a game again at some point. Their best bet is probably against the Predators, who currently sit in seventh place in the Central with Detroit in eighth. However, this current losing streak just has die-hard Wings fans like myself feeling down in the dumps. Everyone knew the team wasn’t going to be competitive this year, but was at least expecting some improvement from last year’s abomination. Unfortunately, with the way the Red Wings are playing, it looks like the rebuild is still nowhere close to being complete.
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