Heading into the 2025-26 season, everyone had their eyes on the Central Division, which was supposed to be the toughest in hockey. Unfortunately for the Detroit Red Wings, they're playing in the league's toughest division, and it hasn't been the Central for a while now.
Instead, the toughest group of eight teams at roughly the one-eighth mark of the season is the Atlantic, where there isn't a single team with a points total under 0.500 heading into Sunday. Yeah, just when the Wings look like one of the league's better teams, the entire Atlantic Division follows suit.
Before Sunday's matchups, the division looks like this:
Team | Record | Points |
|---|---|---|
Montreal Canadiens | 9-3-0 | 18 |
Detroit Red Wings | 8-4-0 | 16 |
Ottawa Senators | 6-5-2 | 14 |
Boston Bruins | 7-7-0 | 14 |
Florida Panthers | 6-5-1 | 13 |
Toronto Maple Leafs | 6-5-1 | 13 |
Buffalo Sabres | 5-4-3 | 13 |
Tampa Bay Lightning | 5-4-2 | 12 |
What jumps out here is that the top three teams from last season are vying for a wild card spot. Or, that would be the case if we were in the "down the stretch" phase. But since it's still so early, expect Florida, Toronto, and Tampa to give the Canadiens, Wings, and Senators all they can handle while the Bruins and Sabres also look like they're going to be relevant.
Showdown in San Jose will be tougher than you think
The Red Wings are coming off a demoralizing road loss to an average Anaheim Ducks team, and that's a generous way to categorize them. Now, they get to deal with the Sharks, who are 4-6-2 but the winners of two straight.
If the Sharks continue to climb the NHL ranks as the season progresses, expect Macklin Celebrini (17 points, six goals in his first 11 games) to be in the conversation for the Hart Trophy. He's on pace for between 126 and 127 points and between 44 and 45 goals, and he has a solid mixture of young talent and seasoned veterans around him.
Want more fun? The Sharks are skating into this one with momentum, having beaten the Colorado Avalanche in an overtime thriller on Saturday. Celebrini scored in that one, too, so make it 18 points and seven goals in 12 games for the year.
State of the Detroit Red Wings
Max Bultman of The Athletic summed up the 2025-26 Red Wings well throughout the early stages of the season, using the phrase "improved and flawed." Still, Bultman went on to write, "So where does that leave these improved, flawed Red Wings? In a pretty good place, having banked some early points against top competition, and with plenty of room for more improvement. At least, as long as they’re able to actually make some progress, which, to their credit, they’ve shown an ability to do thus far."
It's the same observation most fans will get, since the Wings, despite their 8-4-0 start, seem to forget they have so much talent occasionally. Earlier in the year, they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs on the road in a game where the Leafs outshot them nearly 3 to 1.
Then came the disappointing outing with the Buffalo Sabres, also on the road, the blowout loss to the New York Islanders, and Friday's flat outing against the Anaheim Ducks. That's not counting their awful performance vs. the Montreal Canadiens to open the season.
So, you can call the Wings an up-and-down, but more up than down, team as they steamroll into Month 2 of what should be, overall, an improved campaign. We'll see if the Wings can minimize those flaws in November and snag at least another 16 points in the process.