There's no sugar coating it. The start of this season has been bad for the Red Wings.
While a good amount of this start can probably be attributed to coaching, a lot of the blame should go to the players themselves. There are a plethora of players on this team who aren't meeting expectations.
On the flip side, some are meeting and even exceeding expectations this season. So, I decided to compile a totally arbitrary and subjective list of where I believe everybody sits at this point in the season.
Who is exceeding Expectations?
Marco Kasper: Kasper has been what I would call exemplary since getting called up early in the season. While he's sporting a 45.8% Faceoff percentage, he's already sporting the second most amount of minutes among the Red Wings centers and fifth in overall time on ice among all forwards. Clearly, the coaching staff already trusts the young centerman, and for good reason. He currently has the lowest Goals-Against/60 Minutes (GA/60) on the team at 1.5 and the highest Goals For/60 Minutes (GF/60) on the power play on the team. While young, Kasper already looks comfortable and stable in the NHL.
Dylan Larkin: I didn't think that the captain could exceed my expectations. I thought we'd seen all we needed from Larkin last season. But boy, was I wrong. Larkin is currently on pace for a 50-goal season and is currently tied for the most powerplay goals in the league, with six, leading the team with 11 goals in 19 games. To nobody's surprise, he's the team's best faceoff man with a faceoff win rate of 57.5%, which is good enough for him to sit at 22nd among his fellow centermen in the league. The captain is the captain and may just be one of the most underrated centers and maybe even players in the entire league.
Simon Edvinsson: The Red Wings resident "Giant Swede" has been stellar in his first full season with the Red Wings. While he did have the advantage of playing 25 NHL games in the last two seasons. He has looked far better than I think most of us fans expected. While he was originally paired with Jeff Petry to start the season, Lalonde clearly noticed that he was already his second-best defenceman and decided that loading up the top pair was the smartest play. He's playing just four minutes less than Seider but still facing the same level of competition as Seider, all in what is essentially his rookie season. Being one of the few bright spots in the season, we can only hope that he continues his level of play through the season as well as continuing to develop his play.
Cam Talbot: When the Red Wings signed the 37-year-old netminder in free agency, It was, in my opinion, a good signing. A three-time all-star with a .914 career SV%, he seemed like just the thing the Red Wings needed after several seasons of "backups turned starter" goalies. He's proved that my hunch was right; being the Red Wings bonified starter since his first game, he's been solid in nearly every game he's started so far. Sporting a 0.920 SV% so far this season, he's been top-ten in the league all season, and behind this current defense says a lot.
Jeff Petry: Yes, as much as some, well, many of you hate the man. Petry has been pretty decent this season, and while it's not saying too much, he exceeded expectations compared to last season. Again, it's not a high bar, but technically speaking, he belongs here. He's also been stuck playing a style of hockey that he's never been known to play. Thanks to Ben Chiarot and his randomly chaotic style of play, Petry has been forced to play as the defensive defenseman on the pairing. Something he's never been. While he may not be a second-pairing defenseman anymore, He's not nearly as bad as people would lead you to believe.