I’m a fitness guy at heart and I always will be. This past winter was brutal, but I was still in the gym working out between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. until between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. And my workouts aren’t easy, consisting of minimal breaks and maximum time under tension.
That said, I’m always moving, and I can relate, to a degree of the physical conditioning of athletes. But if you were to give me a pair of skates and tell me to play an entire shift at a world-class level, it would be a shock to the system, given the level of conditioning necessary.
And if you watch hockey often, you’ll see this with even those in the best hockey shape out there. Give these guys a one-minute long shift, and they’ll be out of breath. Go over a minute, and, well, many times, they’re doubled over.
Now, give them about four and a half minutes, and see what happens. Yeah, talk about arguably the roughest four minutes of one’s career. But that’s what we saw in Tuesday night’s loss to the Carolina Hurricanes - two Red Wings defensemen, Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson, were on the ice for that long.
The Red Wings found themselves in a laughable situation on Tuesday
So, what caused Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson to be on the ice for 4:24 and 4:28, respectively? Case in point, the Red Wings couldn’t find a way to regain puck possession from the Hurricanes. No, that’s not bad; it’s laughably horrendous, and something no playoff contending team needs to deal with.
Hey, it’s already bad enough that the Red Wings appear to be in yet another slump as the trade deadline approaches, which can really mess with their playoff chances. Yeah, if you have a good long-term memory, it’s no different from what happened to them last season, except their best player, Dylan Larkin, is healthy.
But, let’s be real: the Red Wings are a mess right now. There was little to cheer about last night other than Elmer Soderblom finding the net, and this is coming on the heels of a disappointing loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Stadium Series.
For the Red Wings, it’s back to the basics
Part of me wants to say the Red Wings are a good hockey team, but the logical part of me says they’re streaky. They were a disappointment early, before they fired Derek Lalonde and replaced him with Todd McLellan, and everything looked fine. Actually, everything looked more than fine, as a pair of seven-game winning streaks aren’t the easiest thing to accomplish in this league.
Well, now they’ve dropped their fifth contest in their last seven games, Throughout this stretch, they’re 2-4-1, with five points to show for it and 20 goals. Do the math, and they’re once again averaging fewer than three goals per game while allowing four per and 28 total.
Their power play is as good as it’s ever been, clocking in at 40 percent over this span, and with a Corsi For of 51.6, they’re getting pucks to the net time and again. But with a PDO of just 91.7, it’s clear that they’re not finding ways to score despite their opportunities.
So, it’s time for a quick reset and return to the basics before this slump gets so out of control that the Red Wings once again find themselves locked out of the playoffs for the ninth straight season. And that needs to start Thursday when they face the Utah Hockey Club.