ESPN’s Ryan S. Clark and Kristen Shilton ask “burning questions” for every NHL team this morning. Shilton takes care of the Eastern Conference’s “burning questions,” and she suggests that the Red Wings face a deficit of star power:
What — or who — will be the difference-maker?
The Red Wings have been missing … something. Despite good talent, a solid structure and, at times, long stretches of momentum last season, Detroit managed to fall just short when it mattered most. How will the Red Wings go about fixing that?
It starts with training camp. Detroit is expecting growth from its young players like Simon Edvinsson, Jonatan Berggren and Carter Mazur. Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko will need to play key roles as veterans on and off the ice. And other returning stars — led by captain Dylan Larkin — have to be better, too.
On the back end, the Red Wings could be minus one significant skater in Moritz Seider. He doesn’t have a contract yet (fellow RFA Lucas Raymond signed his new deal on Monday night), and that’s a potential distraction the Red Wings can’t afford to let derail their progress. Coach Derek Lalonde has enough to sort through as it is identifying how to get Detroit back into the postseason picture.
Continued; I don’t know whether the Red Wings need another star player as much as they need to sort out their goaltending and, once Moritz Seider’s signed, find a second-pair defender to spell Seider…
And Larkin, Raymond, Seider, Kane, et. al. tend to bust their asses when they’re on the ice. Can they all be a little better? Sure, I’ll buy that one. But without improvement from the rest of the roster, I’m not certain whether the Red Wings can satisfy the question as to whether the team can fulfill Shilton’s “je n’ais ce quoi.”
