Duff: Go Deeper Into the Red Wings Mess

This Detroit Red Wings season is pock marked with question marks, but a portion of the fan base are certain that they have answers.

Fire coach Derek Lalonde, come the screams from one corner. Replace GM Steve Yzerman is the calling card of another group.

There’s even an element in favor of a complete housecleaning and pushing the reset button.

In reality, there’s no quick fix that will remedy this mess. And all of the above have played a role in creating this epic failure.

“I think we can all agree we’re not filling the expectations we’re all hoping for,” Detroit defenseman Moritz Seider said following Saturday’s 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. That loss was dropping the Wings to second-last in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.

Detroit is now eight points out of a playoff spot heading into Monday’s home date with the St. Louis Blues. That game will close out the team’s pre-Christmas slate, but it’s challenging to find any holiday spirit amidst this debacle of a season.

“We’re winning, we’re losing , we’re winning, we’re losing,” forward Joe Veleno explained.

You have to go all the way back to October to find the Red Wings winning as many as three games in a row. They’ve posted just four regulation-time victories over the past 20 games.

Yzerman Certainly Not Blameless

When assessing what’s right about the Red Wings, Yzerman must be given some credit. His first-round draft picks – Seider, defensemen Simon Edvinsson, forward Lucas Raymond – are all key parts of the team’s core. However, Yzerman certainly isn’t blameless when it comes to Detroit’s problems.

At the end of last season, I was excited to see an improved @DetroitRedWings team this year. They’ve regressed. I have no confidence in the #YzerPlan. This team has #NoHeart, #NoPride! The #RedWings have clearly given up… #SameOldRedWings #10YearRebuild #DeadThings #LGRW

— Steve Pawlaczyk (@spawlaczyk) December 22, 2024

Of the UFAs he brought in this season, only goaltender Cam Talbot is working out. Vladimir Tarasenko plays hard, but isn’t accomplishing what he’s being paid to do, which is scoring goals. Tyler Motte is performing decently as a bottom-six forward, but is hardly a difference maker. As for Erik Gustafsson, he’s been nothing short of disastrous on the blueline.

Who Are These Red Wings?

Lalonde’s static, defensive system clearly isn’t working consistently, which is raising another question – is it even the right system for the personnel he has at his disposal? The Detroit coach frequently refers to some of his players not having the DNA to fit the way he wants them to play. Isn’t a coach better served fitting his system to his personnel than trying to fit his personnel into his system?

I don't think I've seen more people wanting lalonde to be fire than I have after yesterdays game….

I've already started doing other things than watching wings. No compete or entertainment. It's sad but if they aren't gonna try I'm not gonna watch#lgrw #redwings #detroit

— ANW (@ANWTravel101) December 22, 2024

The Red Wings players don’t even seem to know what their identity is as a team.

“We’ve just got to start by realizing what kind of team do we want to be this year,” Veleno said. “We just really got to put our right foot down and look at what kind of team we want to be and how we want to play and how we want to approach these games.

‘We still got to figure that out.”

No Quick Fix For Red Wings

This is not the only problem with the Red Wings that doesn’t look to be an easy solve. Assuming making the playoffs this season is a pipe dream – not really a stretch at this point – how do they make it better for next season?

Yeah, good luck with that one.

The players that fans would most like to see gone – defensemen Ben Chiarot, Justin Holl and Gustafsson and forwards Tarasenko, Andrew Copp and JT Compher – are all on multi-year deals with term extending beyond this season. No team is going to be trading for them.

Among the players on expiring contracts, such as goalie Alex Lyon, defenseman Jeff Petry and forwards Patrick Kane, Jonatan Berggren and Christian Fischer, only Kane and Berggren would figure to be bringing any interest from other teams. And it’s unlikely that the Red Wings will be looking to move on from Berggren after one full NHL season.

As for top prospects, don’t expect to see forwards Michael Brandsegg-Nygard or Nate Danielson, or defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka in Detroit at the start of next season.

Yes, it’s already been a long season in Hockeytown. And next season isn’t projecting to be that much better.