Flortheast Division Previews: The Detroit Red Wings

The Red Wings enter the Eastern Conference as a team with rebuilt expectations. The retirement of Nicklas Lidstrom after a disastrous first round series loss to the Nashville Predators in 2012 left the team and fanbase with hefty concerns going into the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. Detroit was expected to be a playoff bubble team and, in the end, that’s what they were, but not for the reasons expected. Injuries slowed the team down much more than expected defensive shortcomings and, by the end of the season, they were one of the better defensive teams in the league.

Coming through this offseason, the Wings cut some weight on defence (Ian White and Carlo Colaiacovo) while making essentially lateral moves up front (Valtteri Filppula out for Stephen Weiss and Damien Brunner replaced by Daniel Alfredsson). They got a little more experienced and a bit more “Eastern-savvy” with their additions, but in the end, if the Wings end up being the same team that put up top-five numbers in team possession, fans will expect them to be more than the bubble team they were last year. However, injuries and inconsistent play could haunt them all season. All-in-all, they’re probably a mid-tier contender with a lot of wiggle room to be better or worse than that.

It goes back farther than this, but part of why the Red Wings and Ducks had a great rivalry when they shared a conference was the philosophical divide in team-building methods. The Burke-built Ducks won a cup with the same kind of blueprint you see in teams like the Bruins and Maple Leafs (obviously) before the “softer” Wings got the upper hand and set the mold for teams like Chicago or Vancouver. Obviously the perfect middle-ground remains a team full of tough-shouldered but soft-handed guys, but in the absence of that, the Flortheast has certainly embraced the “err to the side of toughness” mentality.

It takes a lot of maturity and confidence to remain a team that can handle being goaded both physically and verbally into the type of antics in which guys like Orr, Kassian, and Thornton specialize, but the final score of the game remains more important than the little personal scores to settle. In the end, those guys aren’t as good at playing hockey as the people that Detroit will be sending out there, and that’s the important thing.

I think Howard is probably going to end up on Team USA, but it will take just enough injuries/bad play by guys ahead of him for him to become the starter that calling him a darkhorse is appropriate. Personally, I do want him to go to Sochi, but not to play unless Team USA really needs him. The work strain on a backup or even third-stringer in the Olympics isn’t bad and it will keep him focused on hockey while firing him up to play competitively. 

Of course, this could all change if the Wings find themselves in a position to rely as heavily on Howard as they did last season. If he’s playing absolutely every night for the Wings just to keep them close to the race for the final push of the season, I’d much rather he gets those two weeks off to spend with his wife and son.

I think Helm is closer to healthy than a lot of people dare to believe, but I don’t think I’d count on seeing him in the lineup until at least mid-to-late October. Unless he gives himself another series of setbacks by straining to do too much (which is more likely than I’d prefer), he should be up to game speed by December. The back problems which sidelined him all but once last season took a long time to get a proper diagnosis, but was something he kept aggravating by trying to ramp up the intensity of his workouts. He’s still trying to overcome that and, to top it off, he strained his groin skating recently.  He’s been doing drills in practice and even taking a little contact lately though, so I think he’s on the right path.