Wings midseason report card

[yave1964]

Should be quick and easy. Going into the break the Wings sit at 12-33-4 with 28 points they sit 13 points behind the Kings who have the second worst record in hockey. !3 points behind bad. Ugh There have been a few highlights but a lot more lowlights. A first half recap. Yeah I know they have two more games this week but I am doing this now as I have time.

 

 THE GOOD Bertuzzi has established himself as a solid NHLer with 30 goal potential and grit, Mantha before his injury was on nearly a point a game pace. Hronek has established himself as a bonafide power play QB and minute munching defender. Fabbri came over off the Blues scrap heap and has contributing middle six wing written all over him with a bit of a snarl. Zadina is safely established and will never see Grand Rapids again as he does something fun almost every night and with 6 goals in 24 games would be on pace for 20 as a barely 20 year old rookie. Helm still brings it every night. Givani Smith is working hard every night and plays well at both ends of the ice. Bernier has been good (not bad, not great, GOOD) in net. They have resisted the urge to recall Seider who has started to play very well as the youngest player in the AHL.

 

THE BAD Saving the ugly for next, the bad, Larkin plays hard but has lost his way a bit this year. Dekeyser was lost for the year after game 8. Glendening has been laboring and has lost his 4C role instead filling in everywhere as needed but not well.Nemeth gets turned around and is out of position way too much. Hirose was handed a top six role on a golden platter and fumbled it away. Lashoff and Mcilrath, two career AHLers as well as Ericsson have taken semi regular shifts on the back end. Lashoff in 9 games leads the Wings at plus 1, no other Wing player has a plus rating. Not a damn one.

 

THE UGLY Lets start with a team stat- least amount of goals scored, most given up, if this continues the Wings would only be the third team ever to score the least while giving up the most. They have 17 players who are double digits to the negative in plus/minus. Through 49 games they are a  minus 85 as a team, on pace for a staggering minus 144 which would be the 13th worst of all time. No team THIS CENTURY has come close to that ignominy, the Pens in 2003-04 were a minus 113 which is the worst of the past 25 years. The Wings will shatter that.

Individually

 

Jimmy Howard is 2-19 with a goals against over 4

Andreas Athanasiou coming off a 30 goal season has 5 and is a minus 35 in only 36 games worst in the game.

Nielsen has 3 goals, 2 just the other day in one game. Filpulla has 3 and is a staggering minus 31. These are our middle six centers. Cholowski was again banished to GR because of defensive deficiencies but on this team, I ask, how can you tell? Mike Green (2 goals, minus 27) simply can no longer play. Michael Rasmussen started hot with the Griffins with a callup anticipated broke his wrist in game 10 and missed two months, just coming off IR a few days ago for the Griffins. Erne came over from Tampa and has 2 goals and looks glacially slow. Trevor Daley can no longer play the game at any level except perhaps a 35 and older beer league. Perhaps. Alex Biega has perhaps been our best shut down defender which speaks more about the F-Troop on the back end than it does about the Canuck reject. Perlini's next goal will be his first with the Wings, he is now oh for his first 24 games. He is tied with Abdelkader with zero goals. Ehn has 1 goal in 37 games and is supposed to be our best defensive forward but is minus 16.

 

 I give up, there is more, so much more. We have had losing streaks of 8, 4, 12, 6 and are currently on a 4 game losing skid heading into a very tough stretch of nine games against teams fighting for playoff spots. 

 

  I hope you read this with your hands covering your face while peaking through the cracks of your hands, like you would while looking at a car wreck. Trust me that is how I wrote it. 

[yave1964]

OH AND THIS. We have 28 points through 49 games, on pace for 47 for the season. If we manage only 47 point it would be the lowest in teams history since 85-86 and third worst in club history (86 we had 40 points, 77 we had 41) This team is easily among the all time worst Wings teams of all time and arguably the worst non expansion team of the past 30 years.

Edited January 20, 2020 by yave1964

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

This HAS to be your most succinct mid-season report card EVER! And for good reason. You COULD have just said:

 

"F

 

That is all!"

 

and you would have been right.

 

I've been reading comparisons of this team to the Avs of 4 years ago, but one thing is different about us than them: We have too many worthless-or-close-to-worthless veterans that we still have high pay and term to eat that we will have to get rid of before we are REALLY gonna be able to turn this thing around to be competitive. I think it will take longer than the 4 years it took the Avs.

 

Having said that, it seems to me that MOST of those contracts end within a year or two of one another, so WHEN the improvement happens, it should happen a bit more abruptly, as more of our young talent enters and the ones who are young now that will be worth saving will be ready for their serious-pay contracts.

 

Hopefully, somewhere in the middle of that, we will have a lucky/gracious draft lottery to help us out. You will note for the first time in a LONG time I have changed my signature line. It's somewhat manufactured, but nonetheless needed. Lafreniere would be a wonderful addition and could take pressure off of a young Zadina moving forward. Could there be a more important day in the next year for the Red Wings organization than that one?

 

The only way to keep yourself from drinking with this team is to look ahead and hope. Though the Gerard Gallant availability seems like it would be helpful, it may not be as helpful as one might think due to the talent pool we (don't) have. No matter how good a poker player you are, when you are looking at 8-2, you can't really do much with that hand. We just don't have the goods right now, and much of the goods we have are injured, or have been for enough of the season where it really doesn't make much difference.

 

Patience is the key now. And hope for a little fortune with a draft lottery or two, plus continued solid talent appraisal by Stevie et al among the prospects.

 

But sneaking a swig or two of some good bourbon will likely be in the cards as well! And watching other hockey games.

 

OH, AND CURLING!! ;-D