Here we are, with the season two-thirds of the way over, and the Red Wings find themselves at least hanging onto playoff contention. Losers of six straight, things could reach a new low if they find themselves on the wrong end of their upcoming matchup against the NHL’s perpetual bottom-dwellers, the Buffalo Sabres.
Buffalo, past the two-thirds of the way mark, is a team without an identity. And guess what? So are the Red Wings. You may feel otherwise, but consider this: As we barrel into mid-March, can anyone tell me what the Red Wings are supposed to look like?
High octane? Defense first? Physical team that will win games predominantly on the forecheck? Does anyone have the slightest clue? Yeah, they’ve shown flashes throughout the season, but hey, inconsistency has been this team’s only consistency since the puck dropped last October.
Nobody’s afraid of the Red Wings as the ‘down the stretch’ phase begins
As it stands, the Red Wings are 21st in goals scored with 179, 23rd in goals allowed with 204, and recently, they’ve had a pair of seven-game winning streaks and a current six-game losing streak. Their power play rocks, their penalty kill is horrid, they can’t convert high-danger chances, but they’re good at stopping them, the list never stops.
They’re not a physical team and in many of the games I watched, this unit has liked to skate around. A lot. Except when they build some momentum and give us the mirage of a high-octane team. But then again, I long had a hunch that the media was overrating them.
My head’s spinning as I write this because, after paying close attention to this team since October, I’ve yet to find an adjective out there that describes their playing style. To be frank, there isn’t one, or at least not a positive one.
We thought Todd McLellan fixed this problem that Derek Lalonde supposedly created, but with the Wings on their current losing streak, it’s becoming clear that either a) teams have caught on to McLellan’s system, or b) it’s a locker room issue full of (mostly) underperforming players.
Two weeks of madness will haunt the Red Wings
If you think all of what I’ve written above is bad, just wait until you see this team’s upcoming schedule. Yeah, they got the lowly Sabres, but at least they gained momentum coming off of an unprecedented win vs. the Edmonton Oilers. Following tomorrow’s game, the Wings have:
- At Carolina Hurricanes
- Vs Vegas Golden Knights
- At Washington Capitals
- At Vegas Golden Knights
- At Utah Hockey Club
- At Colorado Avalanche
- Vs. Ottawa Senators
- Vs. Boston Bruins
That’s a lot of playoff contenders, with Buffalo, Utah, and Boston looking like the only three outliers. I’d dive into April’s slate, but I don’t want to be too much of a harbinger of bad news. And when you look at this upcoming schedule, it’s two weeks of madness for the Red Wings, regardless of how you spin it.
We know the Sabres can pull off upsets when they feel like showing up (or if they just pass the puck to Tage Thompson). And neither Utah nor the new-look rebuilding Bruins are pushovers. So, if the Red Wings want to stick around the playoff hunt when March fades and we welcome in April, they better figure out who they are by the time they take the ice against Buffalo.