Detroit Red Wings: Spreading some Holiday Cheer

The Detroit Red Wings took a 15-17-6 overall record into the mandatory NHL holiday break.  A tick under .500 yet much better than many could have guessed after a 0-7-2 start to the season.

Although the Detroit Red Wings have played as the definition of Jekyll and Hyde, throughout the season, they’ve managed to hold their own against some quality opponents.  I mean you really don’t know what team is going to show up each and every night for the Wings.

Will it be the team that struggles to obtain 20 shots on goal?  Will it be the team who is one and done in the offensive zone?  Will it be the club who is continuously chasing in their own zone failing to clear the puck out?

Perhaps it will be the unit that comes out flying and banging the body with a terrific heavy forecheck down low, working the puck along the wall.  Maybe the high flying offense led by the speed of Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou.  It could be the scrappy Wings who are looking to exchange blows to create momentum.

One thing has been consistent though, and that is the play of their goaltenders.  Both netminders, for the most part, have seen an immense amount of pressure on a nightly basis and minus a game here or there they’ve both stood tall.

Despite a plethora of injuries, the Detroit Red Wings have struggled at times yet have survived by keeping their heads above water.  Many impact players have been missing through the first half of the season.  The likes of Green, Mantha, AA, Helm, Kronwall have all missed time.

Sometimes folks struggle to find some positives with a rebuilding team, in this article we will look at who’s made a positive impact for the Detroit Red Wings up to the holiday break.  Although Christmas is over, we want to spread some holiday cheer prior to the start of 2019.

Jimmy Howard has been terrific this season posting a 10-8-4 record.  The record doesn’t tell the entire story.  He has a 2.66GAA, and a  .922% save percentage.  The 35-year-old netminder is having an outstanding season.

He is in the final year of his deal, and Ken Holland has mentioned it will take a first-round pick to acquire Howie.  There are a lot of teams looking for a goaltender and Howie can bring some stability to a good team as a rental.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Detroit Red Wings entertain bringing Jimmy Howard back in the offseason on a short-term deal as the franchise doesn’t quite have another younger goaltender NHL ready.

Dennis Cholowski was a big surprise this summer for the Detroit Red Wings.  He had an excellent training camp, and he was able to add to that success with a strong preseason.  Cholo was expected to be an NHL caliber defender but quite possibly not this quickly.

He was forced into duty early, although he made the big club out of camp he was forced to play as a top defender with a sting of injuries to Green, Kronwall, DeKeyser, Ericsson and so on.  Cholowski showed he had the ability at 20 years old to move the puck confidently out of his own zone.

He can skate the puck out of trouble through traffic with confidence.  He won’t be fazed by a heavy offensive forecheck.  He usually comes out with the second power-play unit, as Green usually anchors the top PP unit.

While Green has been sidelined early on in the season and once again, Cholo works on the top unit.  Eight of his fourteen points have been recorded on the power-play.  He’s made some rookie mistakes but they are mistakes that at times indeed cost the team, we need to remember he is only 20-years-old.

At times he tries to do too much with the puck, make a play that isn’t there.  A couple of times he has decided to force a pass parallel with the blueline at the offensive zone and it has been intercepted leading to an odd-man rush against the Wings.

Sometimes he needs to make the safe play similar to what Kronwall will do, and that is chip it deep and go retrieve it.  I think a lot of the kids now are taught to control the puck, it’s all about possession, and young players tend to make riskier moves to keep the puck rather than chip and chase.

Overall Cholowski has been a benefit for the Detroit Red Wings.  He’s recently seen his minutes shortened by head coach Jeff Blashill.  Over the last three contests, he failed to reach 16 minutes in any game.  In two of the three, he’s played less than 15.

Hopefully, the break has allowed him to clear his head and hit the reset button.  On the season he’s played 36 games adding 6 goals and 14 points.  He is a minus -11 on the year.  Although Dennis’ play has been up and down starting to his career, he’s shown enough to make us smile.  He looks like he will evolve into a steady, reliable top-4 defender.

Dylan Larkin has been by far the Detroit Red Wings most reliable skater night in and night out.  The shoe in to be the next captain of the historic franchise is thriving in a leadership role this season in the absence of former captain Henrik Zetterberg.

Larkin has done everything well this season.  He is on the power-play, he contributes on the penalty kill, and he is lethal during 3 on 3 overtime play.  Larkin has been able to thrive with all the extra open ice during overtime.  He uses his speed to his advantage to create scoring chances.

When you watch the kid, he just looks the part of a leader.  He is barking on the bench to the forwards, he busts his hump on the backcheck, and he is not afraid to jump in to partake in some of the rough stuff.

The scrap with Josh Bailey stands out in my memory.  Kronwall leveled Andres Lee, the captain for the New York Islanders with a clean Kronwall’d hit.  The next shift Kronner played, Josh Bailey hit him with a high hit and sort of helped him to the ice in the corner to the left of the Detroit Red Wings goal.

Larkin took exception to that and met Bailey at center ice for an exchange of fists.  Larkin was so fired up after the scrap he spun his helmet on the ice, and as he was being escorted to the dressing room (because the fight happened with less than 5 minutes left in the period) he was gesturing to his bench to get going!

Larkin leads the Detroit Red Wings with nearly a point per game clip.  Through 38 games this season he has buried 15 goals, 21 assists to account for 36 points.  He is a minus -2 on the season yet he is playing on average 21:46 TOI per game.  His 3 game-winning goals have all come in overtime.  The kid is money in extra time.

Maybe the most impressive statistic Larks has provided this season is his effectiveness in the faceoff circle.  In each of his first three seasons, Larkin failed to eclipse a 50% success rate.  This season Larkin is 55% successful in the dot.

Enjoy this kid, although we are currently in the midst or the beginning of a rebuild, however you see it.  Larkin is a player that will be here when this ship sets sail again.  Though the losses may start to mount, this kid will continue to play hard.  Watch him with envy, knowing brighter days are ahead.

Don’t blink or you may miss him blowing by you with his blazing speed.  Andreas Athanasiou may be slumping at the moment, but he was on a tear earlier this season.  Double-A was out for a 5 game stretch earlier in the season and returned to the lineup with a vengeance.

He returned to the lineup notching 9 points over a 7 game span.  During that stretch, the top line sort of went “cold” and the second line paced the Detroit Red Wings.  Frans Nielsen along with Nyquist and AA paced the Wings over that stretch.

Although Athanasiou has been fighting it over the last couple of weeks, he has shown enough earlier this season to warrant a bright spot on this team; he is currently scoreless over his last 11 games.

Jeff Blashill tried to move double-A back to the center position before he was injured.  Things didn’t work out and his minutes over his last two games are an indicator of his struggles.  He played a couple of ticks under 15 minutes against the Flyers and merely 12:27 versus the Hurricanes.

Athanasiou started to fall back into some of his old traits of late.  He has been seen floating around center ice prior to his team being able to clear the defensive zone.  He is looking for that breakaway pass rather than being on the wall providing himself as an outlet target.

He is expected to return to the lineup tonight against the Penguins and is penciled in to start on the wing once again.  Although he is scheduled to play on the third line with Glendening and Rasumssen rather than the second unit, he will look to get rolling once again.  He missed the last couple of games leading into the holiday break.  That along with the three-day break might be just what the doctor ordered.  Hopefully, he is rejuvenated and comes back out of the gate sprinting.

Through 32 games this season AA has 11 goals, 9 assists for 20 points.  He is a minus -1 on the season.  Playing with a below average team that rating is not horrible, especially for a forward like AA who carried a team worst -15 last season.

He has shown enough to impress us, and the future is bright for the young forward.  He will look to get hot and march his goal scoring towards the 30 goal mark this season.

Tyler Bertuzzi serves as a perfect third line grinding forward who can score.  The young forward plays most nights as an agitator and has become the thorn in the side of most of the Detroit Red Wings opponents.

Bert loves to mix it up after the whistle and is often found working down low and in the corners or possibly in front of the net during play.  Bertuzzi doesn’t exactly strike the viewer as a gifted skater or anything, but he can skate well enough to get the job done.

Lately, he’s been playing with Glendening and Rasmussen on the Detroit Red Wings third line.  The line was most effective though with Abdelkader and Bert flanking Glenny.  Tonight in the return from the holiday break head coach Jeff Blashill has Bert on the second line with Nielsen and Vanek.

The Detroit Red Wings are looking for a more balanced offensive attack; it seems Blashill is looking to stretch out some scorers throughout his line-up rather than jamming them all at the top leaving minor league talent as the entire bottom two lines.

Tyler Bertuzzi notched 3 assists over his last 5 games heading into the break.  Bert has 9 goals and 11 assists over his first 36 games.  That is not bad at all for a third line winger.

I would like to see Bertuzzi up on the top line with Larkin and Nyquist over Abdelkader.  I think he could do a similar job working on the boards and causing havoc in front of the net plus bring more of a scoring upside to the top line.  I think Bert is a better offensive option right now and Abby would be better suited playing with Glendening on the third line.

We are thrilled with the production, the physicality and drive that Bertuzzi has provided. He is only 23 years old and has the potential to produce a 25/25 statistical season on a regular basis in the future.  He is skating as a plus 2 this season.

Though to many teams Green would be a fourth or fifth defender he has impacted the Wings in a positive way this season playing as their top defender.  During his 23 games played he’s been a guy that anchors the teams top power-play, yes they’ve struggled down the stretch.

He’s also averaged 22 minutes a night, that’s a pretty high number for a guy who doesn’t play on the penalty kill.  Remember, the Wings started the season 0-7-2 with Grenner sidelined with a liver issue.

The Wings have a record of 13-8-2 with Green in the lineup, and he is a surprisingly plus 10 this season.  He’s been able to record 16 points although only scoring 3 times.  He has been better than many people expected or shall I say better than most will give him credit for.

Many folks were skeptical when Ken Holland decided to bring Mike Green back to the Detroit Red Wings, yet he has been the most consistent defender on the team.  It wasn’t as though Holland gave him a lifetime type contract as he signed so many players to in the past.  A two-year deal worth just over 5 million per season.

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Next season or quite possibly this season Mike Green may be involved in trade talks.  The veteran defender will be a desirable right-handed power-play specialist for a contending team down the stretch.  Like we previously mentioned on a good team he will likely be a third pairing defender playing 17 minutes.  I think he would thrive at this point in his career playing fewer minutes, limiting his defensive zone mistakes.

On Detroit, they need him to play the big minutes because we simply don’t have anyone else.  If Holland decided not to move Green until late in the year next season, it wouldn’t be the worse thing in the world.

I would like to see the young defenders like Filip Hronek and Dennis Cholowski learn from the likes of Green, especially on the power-play. Hronek is the up and comer expected to replace Green’s role in the future, being that offensive right handed shot on the power-play.

Nick Jensen was a guy I thought should be the odd man out to start the season.  I wanted the Detroit Red Wings to start Filip Hronek and Libor Sulak over Jensen even if the Wings were completely healthy.

They started the season severely banged up on the back end and the aforementioned youngsters got an opportunity to start along with Jensen.  Jensen has thrived this season as a shot-blocking defender.  He leads the Wings with 52 even-strength blocked shots on the season.  Aka either goaltender’s best friend.

His contract is extremely team friendly.  His cap hit is merely 813k.  He is in the final year of his contract.  I think he may be a guy Ken Holland and the Detroit Red Wings would like to re-sign with how well the 28-year-old has played.

During the offseason, Jensen hired a shooting coach.  Someone to help him with his shot path.  He was unable to record a single goal last season and claims he saw the writing on the wall with these younger players set to make a push for a roster spot.

It seems to of helped because he has notched a pair of goals and has 10 points through the first 37 games.  Jensen is an above average skater, yet rarely puts himself in a position to get caught.  He is a good skating penalty killing, shot blocking, stay at home defenseman.

Nick has a three-game point streak going; he has three assists over the final three games leading up to the holiday break.  He’s been a very nice surprise for the Detroit Red Wings this season.