Yesterday’s 4-1 loss to Chicago made many things apparent as the Detroit Red Wings sit 2-3. Namely:
- This team is atrocious on the power play
- There are still some changes that need to happen in the bottom six
- Who beyond the top line and Bobby Ryan can score goals?
Following the game, the Red Wings tweeted that Givani Smith was sent back to the taxi squad meaning not only didn’t he suit up because of Darren Helm, but it was a wasted move in the first place.
Jeff Blashill blew up the lines against Carolina and the Wings responded, winning 3-2 in overtime. It’s time to do the same thing—only this time–let the Taxi Squad have a crack at the lineup. I wrote earlier about this today and the noise is deafening within the fanase about how this team cannot generate offense sans four players.
Why not have Taro Hirose and Smith inserted into the fourth line? Helm is already questionable and one of the trifecta of Luke Glendening/Frans Nielsen/Valtteri Filppula can sit. Obviously it doesn’t have to be all at once. But something has to change. The same tired GRIT nonsense from the Holland years is stale and tired. It hasn’t worked in over a decade. More and more teams are relying on their bottom two lines to score goals and it’s time for the Red Wings to respond accordingly.
From a statistical standpoint, the aforementioned forwards (Glendening and co.) combined for a grand total of 45 points last season. Goals scored? 25. Salary between all four: $13.9M. As Yzerman said when he bought out Abdelkader’s contract (From Helene St. James’ article linked above):
"“It was really just a cost-savings for us. We felt that the value of what we were paying him, we could try to save some money and replace Justin with a player making less.”"
Same idea applies here. Though you can’t buy them out, you can sub them out for someone different. And if it yields similar results, that’s fine—at least an effort was made. But we’ve grown too accustomed to seeing games like Friday night over the last few years. It’s time to try something different.
The Wings aren’t getting their money’s worth.