from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,
In grading the 2023-24 Detroit Red Wings, nearly everyone aced their finals — but the body of work over the whole season wasn't quite as stellar.
D Ben Chiarot: B
.. The buzz: Plays a heavy game, always ready to stick up for a teammate, was a solid, dependable partner for Moritz Seider down the stretch.
F Andrew Copp: C+
... The buzz: Asked to play in a defensive role, and didn't see much power-play time, which impacted his production. Given the expectations, the team needed to see more of a push to demand a top-six role.
F Alex DeBrincat: B-
... The buzz: Scored just 10 goals the second half of the season, going quiet at a crucial time (seven points in 19 games from Feb. 29-April 10) before erupting with seven points the final four games. Many a scorer is streaky, but scoring is DeBrincat's bread-and-butter, and it's disappointing the two-time 40-goal scorer didn't even reach 30 his first year with the Wings.
Coach Derek Lalonde and staff: B-
Derek Lalonde and associate coaches Alex Tanguay (offense, power play) and Bob Boughner (defense, penalty kill) kept the Wings determined through some turbulent stretches, and calm during an intense finish to the season. But the defensive structure was an issue all season, and slow starts marred the team especially in the second half. Losing Larkin shouldn't have impacted the team to the devastation that it did, and that's partly on the staff to do a better job managing the roster and forging lineups that deal better with missing one player. It's on Lalonde to show he's the right guy to take the next step, which is coaching the Wings into the playoffs.
more ($)
Randomly. After three seasons under Hakstol, the second-longest-tenured Western Conference coach, it may be time for a new voice and system in Seattle.
3 seasons ? 14/16 West teams have a coaching staff of 2 years or less. I understand most franchises have a win now mentality. If something smells like last weeks fish then 2 years is plenty long enough. If theres a weak or substantial roster churn that may not be enough time for staff evaluation.
I cant read what the goalie grade is. I know Detroit goalies made some saves and some timely ones, but my overall impression right or wrong is that too many leaked through too often, and the combination of team positioning and turnovers and structure plus the goaltending was not good enough. Swayman made a couple of huge saves in the opening minutes and 35 for the game vs Toronto, whose goaltending was not great when needed. Funny to see Toronto get blasted by the Broons but they can win the series.
Lalonde should have been shown the door. The Wings with all these free agent signings gave up more shots on goal then last year and the season before. Didn't Yzerman bring him in for his defensive prowness? This team, actually regressed defensively. How does that work in this league? It's gets you looking from the outside of the playoffs.
According to Natural Stat Trick (5 on 5), this year we showed no progress...
...but our shooting percentage went from bottom half of the league to 2nd! This gave us 22% more goals than last year (5 on 5). It appears too much money was spent on 3rd pair defensemen who find it difficult to defend bottom 6 forwards who find it difficult to score. Maybe it's the coaching, as we're seeing worse underlying 5 on 5 numbers. Some of these numbers are a bit better than the last year of Blashill, who was working with an untalented team. We seem to have improved our special teams and our shooting percentage but we paid $7.9M for 67 points (Cat), $4M for 56 points (Gost) and $2.5M for 47points in 50 games (Kane). What we aren't getting for the $20M in 3rd pair defensemen is defense.
We need to do better next year, that's for sure.
Good stuff.
A bit better than Blashill does not cut it in my opinion.
Besides defense scheme my other issue with this coaching staff is how often they allow the D to pinch in down low in the offensive zone. That is fine for the younger players that have speed but to allow Petry to pinch is asinine.
Thank you for sharing Bill.
Shot totals aren't everything. Wings gave up the 5th most low danger shots at even strength. But they also surrendered only the 6th fewest high danger shot chances 5v5, only 13 behind the leader. Weirdly, they also gave up the 2nd most high danger shots when short handed (only 3 off the leader Colorado) despite being in the bottom half in total shorthanded minutes. There were deficiencies, but I'm not at all concerned about shot totals. I'm looking pretty hard at weak goaltending. Its been a trend for several years, so perhaps questions need to be asked of the goaltending coaching.
I think the change in defensive scheme to an extreme man on man defense took a long time for the players to adapt to. Especially early on the forwards and D often looked like they didn't know who to cover and there were some really ugly breakdowns. That definitely lessened as the year went on. Hopefully a second season under that system will be smoother. But I have to wonder if the fairly high roster churn we're likely to see could set that back some.
My other concern is goal scoring, regardless of Kane coming back. Wings were far and away leading the league in goals above expected, with 32 (Vancouver 2nd at 19). You've got to expect that to regress.
The Wings ranked 24th in goals against (3.33 per game)
Team defense was supposed to a strength heading into the season, but the improvement was marginal (3.35 goals against per game in 2022-23).
I am not sure door, but there needs to be a short leash next season.
Walman regressed significantly. Seider made dumb mistakes and was way less physical all year. Perry was below average until the very last month and a half of the regular season. Holl was not nearly as bad as I thought he was going to be and proved an average 3rd pair dmanwhen he cracked the lineup. Ghost played offensive dman and made his usual ill timed turnoverswhich is how two organizations have moved on from him. Maatta was trying to contribute more offensively while knowing he had to cover for Ghostbut hes so overpaid for a 3rd pairing guy.
chiarot was simply playing well almost all year.
you look at all those and you think its all on the defensewrong. There were regularly blown assignments among the forwards that lead to a dman having to cover two forwards and being stuck in no mans landand the breakaways during the dying seconds on the PP for the opponent: atrocious.
The UFA were goal scorers after ranking near the bottom. I dont know where youre getting the defensive prowess stance
Kane was happenstance and you know you give up defending for offense. Compher can play a 200 ft game but struggled to balance the roles given. Fischer fit the role. Sprong is awful defensively, but scores so much you have to live with it.
DeBrincat played well defensively to start. Then started shifting to offense only. Regressed to playing poorlylike the coach got on him that his ice time would be reduced if he didntwhich lead to a poor 2nd half offensively.
a lot of what I saw was puck chasing instead of physical play. Several people commented to me saying its like watching a beer league game with them all the time where they simply try to outscore you.
there are too many middle six guys with bloated contractswell see how Yzerman solves it.
but regression might happen naturally as Ottawa and Buffalo develop the young talent.
I think this team as constructed is a tweenermight make it might not but isnt going to be dangerous.
Regardless, because of roster construction; the Wings have a 5 year peak window (unless Kasper or Danielson shake out as a #1C) approaching. Yzerman needs to move some draft capital/prospects for necessary guys and bad contracts out.
its max cap time.
Chiarot B
Huge credit for having the foresight to sign Lyon, and then keeping him on the roster, even as early on it meant three goaltenders taking reps in practices. Easy to second-guess Yzerman for standing pat at the deadline when the team went into a slide, but he was right not to trade future assets. Taking a chance on Kane, 35, coming off invasive surgery worked out great. Trading for Petry after signing Holl led to Holl barely being used (though that's also on the coaching staff). The young core Raymond, Seider and Edvinsson are all Yzerman picks.
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