from Max Bultman of The Athletic,
Don’t look now, but the Red Wings have won three straight. Their latest — an overtime, 3-2 comeback victory over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday — propelled them to 7-3-2 on the season and, for the moment, second place in the Atlantic Division.
Yes, it’s early. Yes, this group still has much more to prove. But after questions of a lighter schedule lingered around their promising first week — and were followed by decisive losses in Boston and Buffalo — the Red Wings have responded to their first real adversity of the season by ripping off four of their past five, all against legitimate opponents....
But if you want a reason to believe this current run could be the start of something more, begin with the consistent way the Red Wings are winning. Look at the scorelines of these past three wins: 3-1, 3-0 and 3-2. If you want to lump in the Minnesota game, add 2-1.
It’s not a ton of data points, mind you, but they’re starting to tell a story. So are these numbers: 20, 24 and 22 — the number of blocked shots Detroit has put up in this three-game span. The league lead in blocks per 60 minutes belongs to Vegas at 20.44. The Red Wings, on the back of those recent totals, have worked their way up to sixth.
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from Ansar Khan of Mlive,
The Red Wings (7-3-2) have 16 points, the most they have had through a dozen games since 2010-11 (8-3-1, 17 points). They are second in the tough Atlantic Division and seventh overall in points percentage (.667).
Its early, and nobody is getting carried away thinking this pace is sustainable. Lalonde would be the first to say, Pump the brakes, like he did two weeks ago when the Red Wings were the only team without a regulation loss.
They started well last season, too, going 13-9-3 their first 25 games and were at .500 on March 1 before the bottom fell out. So, fortunes can change quickly.
But it was important for this team to get off to a good start to get players to buy into a new coach.
They have improved in every aspect. They are tied for 18th in goals per game (3.08) and tied for 17th on the power play. More importantly, they are tied for 12th in goals against (2.92) and tied for eighth on the penalty kill, where they ranked second-to-last and last in the NHL, respectively, in 2021-22.
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Let's all agree not to tell Bob Duff about these facts......
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