from Craig Custance of The Athletic,

So in examining the win streak, let’s start there:

1. If you were to hand-pick a couple key necessities going into this season that would make the Red Wings’ rebuilding progress tangible, developing a legitimate top-four defenseman from their prospect group would be high up on the list. Yes, there were likable players in the pool, but no locks to emerge. That Dennis Cholowski remains on that trajectory is more important than any winning streak.

During the Red Wings’ eight-game run of success, Cholowski is averaging close to 19 minutes of ice time and has three points. That’s down slightly from his season totals but it’s probably not realistic to think he’s going to continue scoring at rate of 0.56 points per game. Still, he’s providing more offense than advertised and it’s coming from him mixing poise and smart timing on when to push for it....

2. Confidence is a heck of a drug in the NHL. Those Red Wings fans concerned about the success hurting their lottery chances need to weigh that against the positives this uptick provides for the young players, especially at forward. If this season continued down the early path and really went sideways, it surely would have come at a cost to the development of a player like Anthony Mantha. He started slowly and it was even fair to reassess exactly where he fit into the future in Detroit....

more (paid subscription) on the above points plus 3 others...