Of Red Wings-related note this morning:
- The Free Press’s staffers made their NHL predictions today:
Helene St. James:
Best-case scenario: The Red Wings enjoy good health and play competitively — and finally win the draft lottery.
Worst-case scenario: Injuries decimate the lineup, leading to finishing near the bottom of the standings, and then getting pushed back in the lottery again.
Breakout player: Lucas Raymond is the early favorite after such a good camp, but Moritz Seider may ultimately have the most impact as he strengthens the back end, and with that, the entire team.
Goals leader: Robby Fabbri. I would have picked Tyler Bertuzzi, but he stands to miss 10% of the Wings’ games because his refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine means he can’t play in Canada, as it stands now.
Will they make the playoffs? Hard to see the Wings squeezing out one of the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins in the Atlantic Division, or beating out one of the Metropolitan’s Carolina Hurricanes, New York Islanders, New York Rangers or Pittsburgh Penguins for a wild-card spot.
2. DetroitRedWings.com’s Ethan Sears penned a Wings-Bolts preview of sorts:
“My expectations are to get into tomorrow night and make sure that we’re playing real good hockey where we’re hard to play against,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “That we’re gonna check really well, we’re gonna be physical, we’re gonna have the puck a bunch and we’re gonna play with speed and energy.”
The Red Wings, who finished 19-27-10 in the shortened 2020-21 season, come into the year looking to take the next step – behind Seider, Lucas Raymond, a healthy Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi, and new signings Pius Suter and Alex Nedeljkovic. After a few tough seasons, you no longer need to squint to see the outlines of a competitive team.
On defense, for example, Blashill called the eight players the Red Wings are fielding the deepest group he’s had since becoming the coach. That includes Danny DeKeyser and Marc Staal, who were named alternate captains on Wednesday.
“That depth I think can really help you as you go through the season,” Blashill said. “Because nobody’s gonna play perfect every night, so somebody else can go in and get the job done and you’re gonna have injuries, that’s number one. It’s not necessarily defined by one area … I think we’ve got little variants of everything. I think we have some skaters, we have some puck movers, we have some size.”
