from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,
Red Wings fans would probably like to completely forget last season, but let's look back one more time.
The Wings won a grand total of 17 games (with 39 total points earned) in 71 games, before the pandemic forced the NHL to end its season.
That certainly made for a low bar for the Wings to hurdle to show any sort of improvement.
But, still, the Wings reached an interesting of milestone, of sorts, with Saturday's 1-0 shootout victory over Tampa, that being their 18th victory of this season.
So, the Wings surpassed last season's total in this season's 53rd game, and have 45 points.
That shows progress, in a pure numbers sense.
But coach Jeff Blashill, who is still without a contract for next season, offered further evidence that this Wings team is a much better version from the one a year ago.
"I don’t think there’s any doubt, anybody who’s watched us, that we’re a much better team this year than we were a year ago,” Blashill said. “What I’ve liked here in the last bit is we’ve won a number of games with a whole bunch of young guys in the lineup and that’s a big thing for our organization.
"That's not to discredit the older guys in the lineup, and they’re making great contributions, and we’ve got a number of them that have done a great job.
"But we're a better team today than we were a year ago at this time."
Below, watch Jonathan Bernier and Jeff Blashll plus the game highlights.
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