The Detroit Red Wings season opener is Friday night against the Montreal Canadiens. This game marks the start of a seven season drought. The drought I’m referring too? The playoffs.
The Detroit Red Wings have missed the playoffs for six straight years, and as they head into the year, the Red Wings will be looking to make a step in the right direction. A big part of that was what they did in the off-season. By Acquiring Ville Husso via. trade, and signing some key players, the Red Wings are in good shape to start the year. But, there are more key points than that.
Last year the Red Wings showed that with the right off-season, and a change in coaching, they could be ready to take a jump to the playoffs. Part of the reason we can say that is due to how well they did with recognizing that Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond were ready to make the jump to the NHL.
Now, the season is nearing and the Red Wings had to make a ton of tough calls. Some of those calls included Simon Edvinsson, Albert Johansson and Jonatan Berggren. All of three of them were sent down to Grand Rapids in order to see more minutes and find another layer to their game.
Now, although Derek Lalonde isn’t wrong in what he said about them finding more consistency and minutes down there, there seemed to be a consensus going into the season that Edvinsson was going to be with us. Now that he’s not, it has kind of questioning what to expect from this team. But there is one thing that may make your day better; Although there were a lot of tough decisions made on who they want to start the season with them, there was only one name they felt comfortable with- Elmer Soderblom.