from Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now,
The Red Wings (4-3-2) play their 10th game Thursday at home. That offers an opportunity to review some of the statistics that tell their story in the first segment:
Detroit Ranks 27th With 167 Scoring Chances For (NaturalStatTrick.com)
That speaks to the reality that the Red Wings have three top six forwards (Tyler Bertuzzi, Robby Fabbri and Jakub Vrana) out of the lineup. Bertuzzi and Fabbri are injured and Vrana is in the NHL/NHLPA Assistance Program. The Red Wings are averaging about 18.5 scoring chances per game. They are giving up 23.4 scoring chances per game.
Their 3.11 goals per game is below the league average, but it’s not bad given that Vrana and Bertuzzi are both former 30-goal scorers.
A GAA of 3.56 Won’t Get it Done
The Red Wings rank 25th with a 3.56 goals-against average. It’s hard to win if you need four goals every game to accomplish that. This is not a league where scoring four goals is easily accomplished.
Coach Derek Lalonde has asked his players to play a simpler defensive style and the results have been mixed.
This Detroit team must give up two or fewer goals to win games on a consistent basis and they aren’t yet getting that done often enough.
from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,
That's actually three of the last four games, now, in which the Wings have allowed five or more goals. Not surprisingly, those three games were losses.
"Absolutely it's concerning," captain Dylan Larkin said in a quiet and dejected Wings' locker room after Monday's drubbing. "Eight goals. I mean, what are we going to do? There is opportunity here. The season is still young. We've showed we can be a good team. We have guy guys who are trying to fight for a spot in the lineup. We have guys coming back from injury.
"We need to show that we care more every night."...
What troubled the Wings further in Monday's loss, along with the untimely penalties and allowing Buffalo's skilled players to dominate, was not enough bite in the Wings' game.
"We lost every battle," Larkin said. "We didnt start on time. We didn't really do anything. We skated all over the ice trying to pressure, and it felt like we were skating nowhere all night. When we got to pucks, we were playing on the ends of our sticks and lost every battle."
more
Echoes of the last few seasons Captain Larkin
History repeats itself. Same old same old.
Guy Boucher was Yzerman's first hired coach in TBL. He didn't work out. He then hired John Cooper. They won two Cups with him.
Yzerman got a three-year look at Blash. I think that's more than he gave Boucher so I think Lalonde is going to find a button with this team. Just ten games, yes, and under Holland, it's timely for an evaluation. This is a good place to start.
Some of the high GAA last year was stoked by 28 or so en goals given up, I forget the number. And a couple of blow out losses in 9 games so far jack this number up quite a bit too. Regardless ( IRRegardless if youre from Shiawassee County), the way for almost every bad team to get back into playoff contention over the years has been to play good defense and be hard to beat at home.
This is almost comical because its a near copy of a Babcock quote Ive often written,
Its hard to win if you need four goals every game to accomplish that. This is not a league where scoring four goals is easily accomplished.
You cant give up more than two goals a game, because if you give up three you have to score four to win. And scoring four is hard in this league. - Babcock
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