Detroit Red Wings & the NHL

[Mike]

I didn’t realize their remaining schedule was so tough. That sucks. But this is absolutely the best it’s been in quite a while.

[Hannibal]

It just got incrementally easier -- they are officially in a playoff spot as of today. Woohoo!

[WingsFan]

That was a great game vs a good team that beat the Wings 8-2 in November (after a long west coast road trip). No more boring regular season and the Trade-Dead-Line is next week. Buy ? Zadina, Vrana, Berggren, and Raymond all need to be in the lineup at the same time. So who sits or is traded? I would take a trade and sign, but other than that I wouldn’t give up much. As excited as we all are, we’re not quite that team yet. Tampa is next up, this is going to go down to the wire, could even be the last game of the year.

[Mike]

Welp. That was fun while it lasted! The Wings went to Ottawa and got blasted by Serena Williams 6-2, 6-1.

[Hannibal]

Yeah there goes their four games in hand (three straight losses). There's still a long way to go though. They can make it.

[froot loops]

Larkin signed to an 8 year 69 million dollar deal.

Hronek and a 4th traded to Vancouver for a 1st and a 2nd.

Betuzzi and Vranek are allegedly likely to be dealt.

[Hannibal]

Shame about Bert and Vrana, but they just can't stay healthy.

Somewhat surprising "sell" moves by Yzerman. I figured he would stay and hold the team without much trade action, and then continue to develop the team via the draft. Apparently, he thinks that they aren't very close and that a #8 playoff seed isn't worth chasing.

[Mike]

I agree with him. Despite that 7-1 stretch the team still isn't good. In fact, they kinda suck.

Eastern Conference ranks (out of 16 teams):

13th in points, 13th in ROW wins (regulation + OT), 13th in goals scored, 13th in goal differential. So pretty consistently bad. I'm glad they got the Larkin deal done other than him, Seider, and maybe Raymond, who really gives a shit about any of these guys? They are all replaceable. What really galls me is the repeated misses in the draft. We've been picking in the top 4-8 for several years now and none of those guys have hit other than Seider. We haven't drafted a forward in the first round worth a shit since Larkin in 2014.

Peruse the draft picks and their NHL totals on the right side of the page if you need a good cry this morning.

https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/teams/dr00005492.html

[Mike]

The Wings sent Bertuzzi to Boston for a first rounder in 2024 (top 10 protected) and a fourth round pick in 2025.

[Hannibal]

They have also gotten profoundly cornholed in the lottery -- especially in 2020 -- finished worst, picked fourth.

[Mike]

Yeah, definitely no lottery luck.

[Hannibal]

The Wings for some reason have perfected a routine where a player has a very exciting breakout year in year 2 or 3, but then disappears into obscurity after that. (e.g. Athanaseu, Mantha).

[Hannibal]

It just got incrementally easier -- they are officially in a playoff spot as of today. Woohoo!

Welp. 11 points out of the playoffs. Not even close at the end, and not in a great lottery position either. Bleh. The rebuild continues. How many more years is it going to take?

Playoffs start Monday! Woo hooo! There goes my DVR space.

[Hannibal]

Playoff start tonight...

Islanders vs. Hurricanes
Panthers vs. Bruins
Rangers vs. Devils
Lightning vs. Maple Leafs

Jets vs. Golden Knights
Kraken (!) vs. Avalanche
Wild vs. Stars
Kings vs. Oilers

Penguins miss the playoffs for the first time since Crosby's rookie year. The Caps are out too. The Wings' streak is very safe for quite a while. I doubt that we'll see anyone surpass it in our lifetimes.

Boston ended up second in the league in scoring, despite only having one (!) player in the Top 60 in goals scored (Pastrnak with 61).

Boston was the least scored-upon team in the league and they led the league in goal differential by a country mile, at +127. They are drawing comparisons to the 1996 Red Wings. They won 65 games this year, with only 4 of them having been in shootouts.

McDavid and Driasaitl were #1 and #2 in scoring, with 281 points between them. Not surprisingly, Edmonton led the league in goals scored. They were one of only two teams to top 300 (the other being Boston).

Boston had the Top 3 players in +/- this year -- Hampus Lindholm (+49) Matt Grzelcyk (+46), and Brandon Carlo (+44). Joe Pavelski, 38 years young, ended up 4th with +42 and 77 points. Former Red Wing Tomas Tatar (!) ended up fifth with +41.

Florida allowed 272 goals this year, the worst of any playoff team.

The Wild only scored 239 goals, the lowest of any playoff team.

Edmonton's power play is ridiculous -- scoring 32.4% of the time. Best in the league by more than 6%. The Islanders have the worst power play of any playoff team at 15.8%.

The LA Kings have the worst PK of any playoff team at 75.8%. Playing against the Oilers, that could get pretty interesting.

[Hannibal]

Dang. Lots of injuries this year to really good offensive players. Every playoff sees lots of injuries, but I can't remember a playoff with so many injuries to so many good scorers. Bergeron, Krejci,, Svechnikov, Teräväinen, Erikson-Ek, Pavelski, Landeskog. And maybe a few others that I can't think of off the top of my head.

Scoring is still pretty high though. Last I looked, it was >6.0 goals per game. Although a lot of that scoring has come in 5-1 and 7-2 blowout type games.