NotLeddy
Trust the Yzerscam
- Oct 23, 2018
- 733
- 672
Felt nostalgic tonight and looked back on some old Awood highlights from 2018-19, and kind of got me assessing that team a bit and re-evaluating some of the players I was higher on before they regressed and couldn't repeat the same season contributing to the disaster which was 2019-20.
But that season Detroit scored 227 goals, which was the second most in any Red Wings season since 2014-15. And that season had 9 overtime wins, which was 2nd in the league that season. A very under-acknowledged reason why Detroit's record was so historically bad last season was that similar roster couldn't get into overtime games. It's not 5v5, but overtime was certainly a big reason why Detroit that season was able to at least have a respectable record for a rebuilding team.
Detroit have genuinely upgraded in some areas this offseason and moved on from players who were below replacement level last season, but still have some major holes (center/special teams/having more than one line driving play), which will likely still have them finish as one of the worst teams in the league, but shouldn't be historically bad again. That 18-19 team had major holes too, AA as 2C, slightly worse defense than this year.
I'm not asking "Is Detroit going to finish higher than the 18-19 team in 20-21?", because no, I don't think they do. That team was 4th worst in the league, and I think other teams than upgraded in areas aside from Detroit, leaving it unrealistic for them to win 32 games in a projected 82 game season. But it's still an interesting conversation, at least to me.
Don't know if it's worth noting that the 2018-19 Red Wings had a lot of injuries, Green missed almost half the season, Hronek wasn't up fulltime till halfway through the year, and Dekeyser missed 30 games. The 20-21 season will have their share of injuries anyways, predictably.
The 2018-19 Detroit Red Wings
Gustav Nyquist-Dylan Larkin-Anthony Mantha
Tyler Bertuzzi-Andreas Athanasiou-Thomas Vanek
Darren Helm-Frans Nielsen-Taro Hirose
Justin Abdelkader-Luke Glendening-Michael Rasmussen
Jacob de la Rose
Christopher Ehn
Danny Dekeyser-Filip Hronek
Niklas Kronwall-Mike Green
Jonathan Ericsson-Nick Jensen
Trevor Daley-Madison Bowey
Luke Witkowski
Jimmy Howard
Jonathan Bernier
Projected 2020-21 Detroit Wings
Robby Fabbri-Dylan Larkin-Anthony Mantha
Tyler Bertuzzi-Valtteri Filppula-Filip Zadina
Bobby Ryan-Vlad Namestnikov-Sam Gagner
Dmityro Timashov-Luke Glendening-Darren Helm
Frans Nielsen
Mattias Brome
Patrik Nemeth-Filip Hronek
Danny Dekeyser-Troy Stecher
Jon Merrill-Alex Biega
Marc Staal
Jonathan Bernier
Thomas Greiss
But that season Detroit scored 227 goals, which was the second most in any Red Wings season since 2014-15. And that season had 9 overtime wins, which was 2nd in the league that season. A very under-acknowledged reason why Detroit's record was so historically bad last season was that similar roster couldn't get into overtime games. It's not 5v5, but overtime was certainly a big reason why Detroit that season was able to at least have a respectable record for a rebuilding team.
Detroit have genuinely upgraded in some areas this offseason and moved on from players who were below replacement level last season, but still have some major holes (center/special teams/having more than one line driving play), which will likely still have them finish as one of the worst teams in the league, but shouldn't be historically bad again. That 18-19 team had major holes too, AA as 2C, slightly worse defense than this year.
I'm not asking "Is Detroit going to finish higher than the 18-19 team in 20-21?", because no, I don't think they do. That team was 4th worst in the league, and I think other teams than upgraded in areas aside from Detroit, leaving it unrealistic for them to win 32 games in a projected 82 game season. But it's still an interesting conversation, at least to me.
Don't know if it's worth noting that the 2018-19 Red Wings had a lot of injuries, Green missed almost half the season, Hronek wasn't up fulltime till halfway through the year, and Dekeyser missed 30 games. The 20-21 season will have their share of injuries anyways, predictably.
The 2018-19 Detroit Red Wings
Gustav Nyquist-Dylan Larkin-Anthony Mantha
Tyler Bertuzzi-Andreas Athanasiou-Thomas Vanek
Darren Helm-Frans Nielsen-Taro Hirose
Justin Abdelkader-Luke Glendening-Michael Rasmussen
Jacob de la Rose
Christopher Ehn
Danny Dekeyser-Filip Hronek
Niklas Kronwall-Mike Green
Jonathan Ericsson-Nick Jensen
Trevor Daley-Madison Bowey
Luke Witkowski
Jimmy Howard
Jonathan Bernier
Projected 2020-21 Detroit Wings
Robby Fabbri-Dylan Larkin-Anthony Mantha
Tyler Bertuzzi-Valtteri Filppula-Filip Zadina
Bobby Ryan-Vlad Namestnikov-Sam Gagner
Dmityro Timashov-Luke Glendening-Darren Helm
Frans Nielsen
Mattias Brome
Patrik Nemeth-Filip Hronek
Danny Dekeyser-Troy Stecher
Jon Merrill-Alex Biega
Marc Staal
Jonathan Bernier
Thomas Greiss
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