3 players that need to step up for the Detroit Red Wings before it's too late
The Detroit Red Wings need someone to step up during this rough stretch before it's too late.
Not that long ago, the Detroit Red Wings were sitting pretty as the top wild card team with an eight-point lead in the race, but that gap has since evaporated thanks to a four-game losing skid. It's a shame because this current tailspin the Red Wings are on wipes away the six-game win streak that preceded it. Although the Red Wings still control the first wild card position, they are tied with Tampa Bay with 72 points but with a game in hand plus just a mere two points ahead of the surging New York Islanders, who sit third in the race with 70 points.
The Islanders have a game in hand on Detroit as of Saturday afternoon. This was never going to be easy for Detroit, but they didn't help themselves at all on Friday night, losing to the struggling Coyotes. It's one thing to lose at home to the Eastern Conference-leading Florida Panthers and then again to the high-powered Colorado Avalanche on the road. Still, it's unacceptable to continue the bleeding against a bad Arizona team that, hours before, sold off some of their better veteran players at the deadline. Before losing to Florida, the Red Wings lost a home tilt to the Islanders, who are nipping at their heels, but again, those teams are pretty evenly matched, so, at the time, it didn't feel as though the sky was falling like it does today.
If you ever wondered how much captain Dylan Larkin means to the Detroit Red Wings, I think we've got the answer. He may not be a 'top' center when compared to Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, or Nathan MacKinnon, but to this Detroit team, he's the heartbeat. The Red Wings don't perform well when he's absent, and this group endured a similar type of skid in December when he was out of the lineup, albeit Detroit was also missing David Perron and J.T. Compher as well. Again, I don't blame missing Larkin for the loss at Colorado, but he was very much missed in Arizona.
There are the obvious players that need to help shoulder the load with Larkin out. Of course, we expect Alex DeBrincat, Patrick Kane and Lucas Raymond to carry the mail with or without Larkin, but a few others need to find a way to elevate their game before it's too late.
The Detroit Red Wings need Andrew Copp to step up with Dylan Larkin out.
It's time we sent an S.O.S. out for Andrew Copp. The veteran center is one of the bigger disappointments in the Yzerman era as general manager. Copp, 29, signed a lucrative five-year deal that averages $5.625 million, but he hasn't been able to create much offense since joining the Red Wings.
Copp was signed to be Detroit's second-line center behind Larkin but has since fallen to the third group a year later after the off-season addition of J.T. Compher. During his first season with Detroit, Copp managed just nine goals and 42 points over 82 games. This season, Copp has totaled ten goals and 27 points in 62 contests. It's just not good enough. Copp does contribute in other ways, such as the penalty kill, and he's won nearly 53% of his faceoff attempts, but the Red Wings need more offense from the former Michigan Wolverine.
Copp hasn't had a shortage of scoring opportunities; he's just found himself with Darren Helm syndrome. Copp seems to get a plethora of great scoring chances but hasn't been able to finish at the rate we expect. The year before joining the Red Wings, Copp produced a 21-goal, 53-point season. Is that too much to ask? That type of production would considerably help this Red Wings team. Copp has totaled just three assists over his last 11 contests, averaging a touch of over 15 minutes per night.
Copp is expected to center recently recalled Jonatan Berggren and Daniel Sprong on Saturday night in Vegas.
The Detroit Red Wings need Joe Veleno to step up his game.
Similar to Copp, the Detroit Red Wings need to squeeze every ounce of production from Joe Veleno. Veleno, 24, is enjoying the best season of his young career, but with Dylan Larkin out at least another week, the Red Wings need the young, speedy center to crank it up another notch.
Veleno has scored a career-high 11 goals and 26 points (and counting) this season, splitting his time between skating as a center and a winger. He's averaged under 15 minutes per night this year and is a minus-13. The pending restricted free agent is under 50% in the faceoff circle and has maintained a Corsi For Percentage of 45.8. His Relative Corsi For Percentage is -0.4, which is less than ideal.
Although the possession numbers are below average, there are a few promising signs when you start to dissect Veleno's game. He's produced a stellar 15.9% shooting percentage this season and ranks third on the Red Wings behind Robby Fabbri (23.2) and Compher (19.2), burying those 11 goals on just 69 shots, putting him in the 90th percentile league-wide. The problem; Veleno needs to put more pucks toward the net, his 69 shots are below the 50th percentile. That said, he's still producing 1.8 points per 60/minutes.
Things didn't go well for the Larkin-less Detroit Red Wings in Colorado or Arizona. Head coach Derek Lalonde promoted Veleno to Detroit's top unit, where he'd center Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane. Over the past two games in that role, the Montreal native has gone pointless and is a minus-1, averaging over 16 minutes. Veleno has produced one goal and three assists over his past 11 games with a 9.1% shooting percentage. If the Red Wings hope to remain afloat until their top player returns to the lineup, they need Veleno to elevate his game, especially when playing a scoring-type role with those two high-end scoring wingers.
The Detroit Red Wings need David Perron to step up with Dylan Larkin injured.
Again, the Red Wings need everyone to elevate their game, with Dylan Larkin sidelined with a lower-body injury, but they really need a specific few to bite off a bit more than they have to this point in the season.
Veteran winger David Perron performed at a high-level last season in his first year with the organization. However, as the Red Wings improved their roster and limited Perron's role, his offensive numbers have dried up some. Last year, Perron notched 24 goals, 18 of which came at even-strength and 56 points over 82 games. Perron has scored 13 times this season and added 19 assists through 57 contests. The production hasn't dipped a ton, but the Red Wings can't afford any dip in production right now with their best player sidelined and the wild card race as tight as it is.
Perron's averaging 0.23 goals per game this season from 0.29 last year, and his 0.56 points per game is slightly down from 0.68 a year ago. When you look at it from an ice-time point of view, Perron totaled 1.0 goals and 2.4 points per 60/minutes last season and 0.9 goals and 2.2 points/60 minutes this year, and he's primarily played on Detroit's third line this season rather than a staple on the second group from a year ago. He's notched six power-play goals this season, the same total as a year ago, but just seven even-strength tallies. He did miss six games to suspension in December for his vicious cross check to Artem Zub while sticking up for his captain.
Again, this isn't a negative thought regarding Perron, but the team's vocal leader needs to find a way to create more offense during five-on-five play. Perron is excellent at working on the wall and protecting the puck, but he needs to find a way to get more puck on goal. His 11.9% shooting percentage this season is his worst since 2016-17, and he is a minus-11 on the year.
His Corsi For Percentage during even strength play has dipped nearly 5% from a year ago to 45.3, and his Relative Corsi For Percentage has gone from 5.4 to -1.3. Four of Perron's 13 goals have come from a medium-danger area, and five have come from a high-danger area tight to the goal. Perron has totaled two goals and six points over his past 11 games.
manual