The city of Detroit has embraced its love for hockey over the years, so much so that it has been deemed “Hockeytown” since the 1990s. With 11 Stanley Cup championships (3rd most in NHL), and making the postseason 64 times out of the franchise’s 98 seasons, there are few teams with as much history and support behind them as the Red Wings. However, after making the playoffs in 25 consecutive seasons, winning four championships in that span, the team has not been back to the postseason since 2016, making those eight seasons the second-longest active drought in the league. However, after tying for the last wildcard spot last season (lost tiebreaker), new hope has been restored in the city with playoff expectations for this season. Unfortunately, these hopes have been anything but answer, with the Red Wings among the bottom teams in the Eastern Conference. It is too soon to give up on this season, but changes need to be made now.
A fundamental reason for last year’s success was the aggressive offense. In the 2023-2024 season, the Red Wings ranked 9th in the league in goals per game. Thus far this season, the team is down to 27th in goals per game. Top goal scorers such as Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin need to return to their more aggressive style from last year, pressuring the opposing defense and goalie, while other players like Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane have to return to the same level of play and production that they achieved a year ago. Opponents are out-shooting the Red Wings at an unacceptable level, so pressing the opposing defense as they did last season may help the offensive attack.
The hesitancy to use an aggressive offense is the weak defense and goalie play. This was the weakness of the team last season, and General Manager Steve Yzerman did not do enough in the offseason to address this issue. The addition of Cam Talbot has been productive as he has become the team’s best goalie, but him alone, especially behind this weak defense and remaining goalie room, may not be enough. Trading for another strong goalie would exponentially help this team.
Fans all over have been calling for head coach Derek Lalonde to be fired as he has now had multiple lackluster seasons. While it is hard to tell if firing him would fix any of the fundamental issues the team has had, it is clear that what they have been doing is not working, so a change might not hurt. The team has far too much talent to be among the worst in the league, and seeing how a new head coach utilizes this talent might be an experiment worth conducting. However, at the end of the day, it is the players on the ice more than anything that needs to step up their game if the Red Wings want to keep playoffs on the table for this season.
