Red Wings Two Truths and a Lie: Pre-Olympic Break Edition

The Detroit Red Wings have endured a long month, and as such, this edition of two truths and a lie is a little long-winded. Between the looming trade deadline (the Red Wings play seven more games before the deadline) and with the team collapsing at the end of January after re-signing and losing a defenseman, there’s a lot to cover.

Truth: The Olympic break is coming at the best time

The Red Wings face two more games before the NHL pauses activities for the Olympics in Milan. In the past two weeks before the break, they’ve won two games, once over the league-worst Winnipeg Jets and once against the Ottawa Senators in overtime. Outside of that, the Red Wings haven’t looked themselves.

Whether they want to blame it on a flu bug they weren’t prepared for, or the lack of situational hockey preparation they seem to have within games, the team clearly needs time to sort some things out.

With Simon Edvinsson out of the lineup on defense, the team has had to lean even more heavily on Mo Seider than usual. The young German defenseman has been on ice just about 50% of each of the last few games leading up to his trip to Italy, where he figures to be playing hard minutes against the top of each country’s lineups. Edvinsson has already been ruled out until after the break, so hopefully he recovers before the trade deadline on March 6th.

The Red Wings, outside of the week before last, aren’t getting consistent goal scoring from any of their top forwards since the end of December. The notable exception to this rule would be Alex DeBrincat, who recently hit the 30-goal mark.

DeBrincat looks like the Red Wings’ best player many nights, and he isn’t even one of the people Detroit is sending to Milan.

Lie: Red Wings need a Top Six forward now

Marco Kasper’s re-emergence as an offensive threat has been a much-needed development, both for him and the team. The Red Wings have been able to play with a rotation of Kasper (team hits leader), James van Riemsdyk, who himself is having a resurgent season, and Emmitt Finnie on the top line and have been effective in stretches.

One would hope Kasper continues to look more like the player who closed out last season. The guy who was looking like one of the NHL’s best rookies on the top line. While Patrick Kane and Andrew Copp have slowed from their hot December, breaking up the DeBrincat line seems like a mistake, given the chemistry at least between Kane and DeBrincat. Of course, there is room for improvement individually on Copp somewhere in the NHL for the 2C position, but a pencilled-in question mark at second-line center isn’t the team’s biggest concern right now, or even in the future.

Detroit is in desperate need of another top-four defenseman. Rookie Axel Sandin-Pellikka does not yet show the ability to play consistent defense throughout a game. However, he is still impressive when the Red Wings utilize his tools as an offense-first defenseman.

With Edvinsson out, the Red Wings have a gaping hole at the NHL level on the left side of the defense, and it’s not like they have a ton of options to fill it at the moment in their prospect pool. The Red Wings need someone who can play in a top-four role for at least the next two to three years. They need someone who can play with Sandin-Pellikka there in the future, and help a beleaguered defense that mostly consists of one very hard-working German.

Truth: Chiarot re-signing is a good value

Ben Chiarot certainly picked the right time to have his best season with the Red Wings. With the salary cap rising and the team seemingly headed to the playoffs, he carried a positive rating for much of the first half of the season.

While his contract is a little rich on the surface, Yzerman is paying for his experience to help mentor Detroit’s young defense. Chiarot is one of two defensemen who were playing on a regular night-to-night basis, older than 25, before Edvinsson’s injury forced him out of the lineup.

The Red Wings’ youngsters are “leading the charge” and bringing a breath of fresh air, and points to the team for their playoff push. It shouldn’t be forgotten that more often than not, it’s Chiarot mixing it up in the scrum or coming to his team’s defense. One of the biggest criticisms one can level at this team is their physicality.

You do not often have that complaint with the 34*-year-old defenseman, who has stepped up when the Red Wings need him to.

The cost is that the Red Wings are paying what is realistically a 5th defenseman close to the cost of a third or fourth defenseman, but in exchange, they have someone playing night to night who has truly seen it all on the back end. Seider is the Diesel Engine of the team, but one wonders where he’d be if he hadn’t had a linemate and mentor like Chiarot around the past three years.

Plus, just think about it. They could’ve given that money to Jeff Petry.