The Detroit Red Wings have watched this movie before. In 2022-23, they started the season 7-3-2, only to lose four straight, picking up a point in a shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens and in an overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks. The result? A missed playoff berth.
Fast-forward to 2023-24, and the Wings started the year 6-3-1. When November 2023 hit, the Wings went 2-3-2 across the first 17 days of the month, and ultimately missed the playoffs. Once again, we're in November, and the Wings are having a rough time.
Across the first nine days of the month, the Red Wings are an ugly 1-3. In those previous four contests, the Wings have scored just five goals while allowing 12, and they look like a completely different team than the one that started off 9-4.
If you want to make matters sound even worse, the Wings haven't won a game in regulation since Oct. 28, having beaten the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks in shootouts. Right now, the red flags should be going up all across Hockeytown, given what recent history has shown us.
Detroit Red Wings have yet to work their way past a rough November
History doesn't need to repeat itself, but it can show us patterns. While the Red Wings have worked their way back and played winning hockey at several points in 2023-24, to the point they nearly made the playoffs, struggling through rough patches like this early in the season has set the stage for more to come throughout the campaign.
Every team goes through them, even the best in the league. But the great teams find ways to keep these rough stretches to a minimum, and the Red Wings have yet to figure that out.
Even when they were off to an ultra-rough start in 2024-25 that culminated with former head coach Derek Lalonde receiving his walking papers, the Wings still couldn't minimize the rough periods enough to punch their ticket into the playoffs.
It's time for the Red Wings to find a way past the hard times
If you're the Red Wings, you have to ask yourself, "How do we work our way past these rough stretches so they don't ultimately cost us a playoff spot?" Until they find the answer to that question, you can forget about them playing more than 82 games a season.
Should the Wings figure it out, embark on a few winning streaks, and keep those inevitable stretches of subpar play from derailing their season, they will have a much easier time keeping pace with some of the most playoff-caliber teams in the Eastern Conference. But right now, it's hard to keep faith in a team that has had a tough time putting these November slumps behind them.
Maybe 2025-26 will be different, but until the Red Wings prove otherwise, nobody will blame a single fan who refuses to express faith in this hockey team. The Wings have got to show more than they have over the first nine days of the month if they want to keep fans optimistic.