This afternoon, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen has posted a subscriber-only article which discusses five points of emphasis for the Red Wings to make the playoffs in the upcoming 2024-2025 season. Here’s his most important point:
Tighten Defensive Coverage: Last season, 17 NHL teams gave 252 or fewer goals over 82 games. They all had a 3.02 team GAA or better. Thirteen of those teams qualified for the playofs. The Red Wings have a good understanding of what they can do this season to improve their playoff chances.
Getting in the top half of the GAA seems like a “must” for this team. The team’s overall defensive coverage has to improve or they will miss the playoffs for a ninth consecutive season.
It feels as if they made some strides in defensive coverage last season, but numbers say it was negligible. They gave up 275 goals in Derek Lalonde’s first season and 273 last season. Their 11-point improvement resulted primarly from offensive improvement (particularly on the power play).
To make the playoffs, must set their sights on reducing goals against to 250. That will require a restructuring of how the team plays.
Continued (paywall); the Red Wings do indeed need to stem the flow of goals against, and as Allen suggests in his article, that will take improving the team’s level of goaltending, becoming a better road team, “pushing back” physically, and, of course, not allowing the team’s own goal-scoring to decline to the point that it’s a liability.
