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2019-20 Red Wings year in review


yave1964

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I am going to do this, i doubt hockey is coming back this year and if it does it will likely be for an abbreviated postseason so for the sixth or seventh year in a row i am going to do a recap of the year that was for all thirty one teams, starting with the teams that missed the playoffs and going from there. Starting with the worst team in hockey, my beloved Wings and then going in order, worst to best from there. It will take a few weeks to run through the non playoff teams and by then a decision could be made on if the season continues. So anyway...here we go

 

PRESEASON OUTLOOK Not good. New GM Yzerman made it clear to all that would listen that this was a season in which he intended to let some bloated expiring contracts work their way off the books, was not going to rush the kids and signed a few veterans such as Flippula and Nemeth as placeholders. The Wings were picked to finish at or near the bottom of the league by pretty much everyone. In that regard, they did not dissapoint.

 

FINAL RECORD 17-49-5 absolute worst record in the game, least amount of goals scored (33 less than the Kings who were next worst) most amount of goals allowed (Ottawa second worst 24 goals less scored). To the best of my knowledge it is the first time since the expansion Sharks in 1991-92 that a team had the least amount of goals and gave up the most.

 

HIGH POINT OF THE SEASON The Wings started the year with back to back wins against perennial solid clubs Nashville and Dallas and actualy won 3 of their first 4 to open the season largely led by Anthony Mantha who started the year with an insane 6 goals in 4 games.

 

 They also had another highpoint which @SpikeDDS certainly appreciated, the year before the Wings were humiliated in a game by the Habs, Larkin and Kronwal ripped the team to shreds for the lack of effort. If nothing else stuck, this did as the Wings swept all four games against Montreal, first time in the 100 year history the Wings swept Montreal in a season in which they played 4 games or more.

 

LOW POINT OF THE SEASON Well, damn near everything else. After their first four games the winged wheel fell off, the Wings lost 12 of the next 13, then after breaking that streak then lost their next 12. On December 29th after losing to the Lightning they reached the nominal halfway point of the year at 9-28-3. 

  The other low point is mid January to the third of February the Wings lost 9 straight being outscored in that span 39-12. They were simply unwatchable as they fell to 12-38-4.

 

WHAT WENT RIGHT Bernier in net was actually pretty decent on such a wretched team going 15-22 with a 2.95 goals against, not horrible in front of such a bad team. Bertuzzi was the Wings all star rep with 21 goals and 48 points. Larkin plugged away leading the team with 53 points and second in goals. Hronek established himself as a true top pair defender. Mantha missed 28 games but has just under a point a game when on the ice. Blues castoff Robbie Fabbri came over and showed a very nice scoring touch. Zadina was recalled from the Griffins and proved he belongs in the NHL with 8 goals in 28 games. Darren Helm quietly had a solid year. The Wings managed to parlay Athanasiou and Mike Green to the Oilers for a handful of picks. 

That is truly about it. Well Biega and Bowey werent terrible as a bottom pair as long as too much wasnt asked of them. Givani Smith had a good moment or too.

 

WHAT WENT WRONG Lets start with plus/minus, yeah i know an overrated stat but read this carefully, the Wings had a grand total of 20 players in double digits in the minus category. TWENTY PLAYERS MINUS TEN OR WORSE! Athanasiou before the trade was a minus 45 in 46 games. Flippula was minus 42 and was pathetic as a 2C. Nielsen took until December 28th, his 38th game to score his first goal. the two of them are washed up and clearly done while still under contract for next year. Abdelkader went the entire season with no goals. None. Zip. Zero. Cholowski continues to frustrate with bad decision making on defense. The Wings best defender, Dekeyser went down after 8 games. Daley is washed up. Brendan Perlini came over and had 1 goal in 39 games. Erne was pretty bad. Jimmy Howard? Dont ask. I will cover him in a minute.

  To me though the worst part is the kids in Grand Rapids for the most part had off years, former first rounders, Svechnikov, Veleno, Rasmussen all were meh, none did anything to justify their high draft status. Seider looked good at times, Cholowski was pretty bad with both the big club and the Griffs. Seider, this years first rounder and the youngest player in the AHL had growing pains but showed promise. Zadina was ok with both clubs but more is expected. That is a total of six recent first rounders none of whom looked like they were ready to live up to the billing.

 

STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR Jimmy Howard beat Nashville 5-3 to start the year and after a few losses in which he performed decently  bested the Oilers 3-1 on October 29th, to run his record to 2-5 with a decent goals against. An all star the year before he then went zero for the rest of the season, having a twenty game losing streak (0-18-2) from that point. Most of the games were awful, in fact he gave up 4 or more goals in 16 of the twenty losses. His final record of 2-23-2 with a goals against of 4.20 (nearly a goal and a half worse than Bernier playing in front of the same bad defense) and .883 save percentage make his one of the worst seasons in net of all time.

 

FREE AGENTS Howard, Daley, And Ericsson come off the books as do long term LTIR Franzen and Brodziak. Entering their final year are Bernier, Nemeth, Flippula, Glendening and Helm. The wings should be out of cap hell within the next year. 

 

OFFSEASON QUESTION MARKS Do you promote Svech, Veleno, Cholo and Rasmussen in spite of mediocre seasons in grand Rapids? Who do you sign in net to replace Howard? Do you go all in for a Holtby or sign a stop gap? What do you do with the worst defense in the game? Most important with the games worst record where will they draft? will they win the lottery and Lafreniere?

 

  Really not a ton of question marks, the Wings will be bad again next year, not AS bad, but certainly not a contender, one more year and the majority of the inflated deals will be off the books, 2021 will be awful, they are building for the following year.  Most of the kids will probably get a chance to earn their stripes next year in a low pressure situation.

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2 hours ago, yave1964 said:

so for the sixth or seventh year in a row i am going to do a recap of the year that was for all thirty one teams

 

Have you really been with us that long now?  Wow ... I remember when you first joined this hockey community.  My has time flown by.....

 

Always look forward to your year in review for each team.  :)   You do such an awesome job. Thanks for doing this. :)

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2 hours ago, yave1964 said:

STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR Jimmy Howard beat Nashville 5-3 to start the year and after a few losses in which he performed decently  bested the Oilers 3-1 on October 29th, to run his record to 2-5 with a decent goals against. An all star the year before he then went zero for the rest of the season, having a twenty game losing streak (0-18-2) from that point. Most of the games were awful, in fact he gave up 4 or more goals in 16 of the twenty losses. His final record of 2-23-2 with a goals against of 4.20 (nearly a goal and a half worse than Bernier playing in front of the same bad defense) and .883 save percentage make his one of the worst seasons in net of all time.

 

That is some putrid goal tending ....who do the Red Wings have in the pipes down the road to help solve some of these issues?  I see they have:

 

Filip Larsson, G, Grand Rapids (AHL)

Grand Rapids -- GP: 7 W-L-OTL: 2-5-0 GAA: 4.01 SV PCT: .843

Toledo -- GP: 3 W-L-OTL: 1-2-0 GAA: 3.04 SV PCT: .886

A rough first season of pro hockey has been compounded by an injury for Larsson, who was regarded as the most promising goaltending prospect in the organization.

 

“He’s had a tough year. He hasn’t been healthy all that much," Horcoff said. "He’s starting to get back to that now, so hopefully he gets healthy and has a better second half.”

 

I see others in the pipeline are:

 

Kaden Fulcher 

Kaden Fulcher got to play in the NHL this season as he came in relief of Howard during the final week of the season. He was subsequently sent back to Toledo of the ECHL and was part of the team that made the Kelly Cup Final. 

The 20-year-old backed up Pat Nagle in the post-season but could get time with the Walleye or the Griffins if needed. 

 

Keith Petruzelli 

The 6-foot-5-inch goalie was the backup to Andrew Shortridge at Quinnipiac University in the NCAA. He played in 14 games and went 8-3 with a 2.42 GAA and .904 save percentage.  

Petruzelli will likely get more time in net as Shortridge signed with the San Jose Sharks. The Bobcats are usually in the mix for the ECAC title and make the NCAA tournament. He’ll get plenty of chances to gain more seasoning against high-level competition. 

 

What is your thought on this moving forward ...the Red Wings need to correct their goalie situation ......

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49 minutes ago, pilldoc said:

 

Have you really been with us that long now?  Wow ... I remember when you first joined this hockey community.  My has time flown by.....

 

Always look forward to your year in review for each team.  :)   You do such an awesome job. Thanks for doing this. :)

I had to look it up, member since January of 2012, wow how time flies. I appreciate the sentiment Doc, love doing the reviews, i have been holding off waiting to see if their is going to be a season or not, looking bleaker every day.

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3 hours ago, yave1964 said:

His final record of 2-23-2 with a goals against of 4.20 (nearly a goal and a half worse than Bernier playing in front of the same bad defense) and .883 save percentage make his one of the worst seasons in net of all time.

 Yeah, but what would it be if you pro-rated it?

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3 hours ago, yave1964 said:

Do you promote Svech, Veleno, Cholo and Rasmussen in spite of mediocre seasons in grand Rapids?

 

That's such a tough one.   You might see one or two of them but if they had meh seasons, gotta consider keeping them down to percolate some more.   If the team is going to be horrible next year, why throw them into that?

 

On the other hand, not much pressure, so maybe.   For ticket-selling and TV ratings purposes, might be more fun to watch kids than watch Fippula steal ice time.

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