The Detroit Red Wings are going into their 85th season in the National Hockey League. They are one of the original six teams in the league and have won a total of 11 Stanley Cups.
Last season, the Red Wings failed to make the playoffs for the first time in 26 years. The Red Wings finished third last in their conference, which was shocking and depressing for us Wings fans.
This year, the Wings are honestly not looking any better, whatsoever.
The team is running behind head coach Jeff Blashill and general manager Ken Holland. Blashill has been with the team for two seasons so far and is into his third with the club. Blashill got his team to make the post-season in his first year, but to some that was a bit of a fluke since they got destroyed by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round.
Holland has been in Detroit for many years and has made some really smart moves, but has also made some questionable moves that have come back to haunt the team. Both Blashill and Holland keep going for older, washed-up forwards to hopefully get the team back in the post-season, but it just never works out.
In my opinion, we need to go younger and develop some young players into stars instead of getting old veterans that should maybe have just retired. We got Anthony Mantha, who is going to be a decent star one day, and also Dylan Larkin, who has the potential to do the same.
The Red Wings captain, Henrik Zetterberg, has been playing since 2002 with the Red Wings and has been their captain for six straight seasons. Zetterberg is a player that I have always loved and when we still had Pavel Datsyuk, the two players who had the nickname the Euro Twins, would make plays that would leave you with your mouth open speechless. When we lost Datsyuk last season to the KHL, I had a big feeling that it would haunt the team and turns out, it did. Zetterberg hasn’t been the same player he was a few years ago, and sadly there are rumours going around that he won’t be in the league much longer.
Aside from having old players that can no longer perform, the Red Wings goaltending and defence is embarrassing. We haven’t had a solid starting goaltender in a few years and the two goalies we have right now are very inconsistent. Jimmy Howard and Petre Mrazek haven’t had very good seasons in the last three years and neither one of them has stepped up to be the permanent goaltender we desperately need.
Don’t even get me started with our defence. Niklas Kronwall and Jonathan Ericsson have both seen their day and are turnover machines, and sadly ,we don’t really have any other stand out defencemen.
The 2017-18 Detroit Red Wings are predicted to finish in the bottom three of the entire league. We just got a new stadium, but sadly it won’t see any post-season life for many years to come. After being one of the most impressive franchises in the league with our 25 straight post-season births, we have dropped down to becoming one of the saddest teams in the league.
I really want to look forward to seeing the Red Wings play and to make the post-season, but if our management doesn’t get its act together soon I’m sorry Wings fans, but we won’t be making the playoffs anytime soon.