Red Wings experiencing December blahs

I’ve been on the IR again, which is plain old pissing me off, but so are the Red Wings, honestly. At 11-14-and-4 heading into tomorrow’s Hockey Night in Canada game vs. Toronto, the Wings sit tied for 6th in the Atlantic Division, but they’re remarkably only 6 points south of 4th place and/or the 1st Wild Card spot.

With that blessed parity basically saving the Wings’ season thus far, I think the greatest amount of frustration I have is with the Wings’ consistency, or the lack thereof.

It feels like it’s one step forward and two steps back for the team every week, and that certainly felt like the case after the Red Wings had that rousing shootout win over Buffalo in Sebastian Cossa’s NHL debut, only to come out flat as a pancake against the Flyers, playing emotionless, robot-like hockey…

And when the Wings’ secondary scoring goes “poof!” and they play robot hockey, man, is it uncomfortable to watch the team underachieve. It looks like they’re playing Jeff Blashill-era “poke-and-hope while trusting the process” hockey from two or three years ago…

And without having replaced Shayne Gostisbehere on defense, without the vocal bench cheerleader that was David Perron, this team can be very quiet and very plain, especially with Patrick Kane in a slump where every pass goes over his stick and every shot goes over the net.

Andrew Copp at least shows up when he seems most irrelevant and scores a couple of crucial goals. Vladimir Tarasenko is slowly warming up. I really liked the pair of Johansson and Gustafsson last night, and both Ben Chiarot and Jeff Petry have been…competent…most of the time.

But without J.T. Compher and Kane going, and the fine DeBrincat-Larkin-Raymond line shut down, again, it feels like Marco Kasper is doing all the heavy lifting up front, and he’s just not at a position in his career where it’s fair to give the Kaspers, Berggrens and Velenos all the offensive responsibilities. For better or worse, they’re just not that consistent (yet?).

Hell, last night, Christian Fischer led the Wings in shots with 4, Moritz Seider had 3 shots and 5 more attempts, the Larkin line (and Seider) were all -3 thanks to Scott Laughton’s 2 empty-net goals, and Simon Edvinsson didn’t play a shift after 54:56 of the 3rd period, which seemed to indicate either “shift management “or a minor injury.

And the Wings are still at a point where Cam Talbot’s facing 35+ shots a game most games, so while he’s been great, the Wings are over-taxing their goaltenders just as they over-taxed them last year.

Add in the Wings’ inability to win faceoffs last night (they went 17-and-29 on faceoffs, or 37%), and the team’s not starting with the puck, and not finishing with the puck, either.

Now the Wings get a 3-day break after Saturday night’s Hockey Night in Canada game against what might be a Anthony Stolarz-less Maple Leafs team, but the Leafs are rolling along at 18-9-and-2, having won 5 of their last 7 games, so there’s almost an expectation (as my The Flying Octopus co-host Tony Wolak has suggested) that Saturday night’s game might be an inflection point for change, should Detroit come out flat…

But when the Wings return to work, they play 3 games in 4 nights and 4 in 6 (including a rematch with Philly on the 18th, a home-and-home with the Habs on the 20th and 21st, and then a home game against the Blues on the 23rd), and after Christmas, it’s the Leafs again and 3-in-4 vs. Wild Card rivals Washington and Pittsburgh to close out the calendar year.

Given that Saturday’s game is game number 30 of the regular season, the Wings will be at game 37 by New Year’s Day, and the Wings play 14 games in 31 days in January (ahead of the Four Nations tournament and “bye week” in February), so we’re talking about hitting 51 games on February 1st, and 55 games by the two-week February break.

That’s far too many games expended with which to do anything other than push the Miraclous Comeback button, should the Wings continue to flounder…

So it’s pretty clear that whatever changes the Wings make, from a recall, a waiver claim to some real trades (probably for secondary scoring and a shut-down D to spell Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson) or a coaching trade, have to come sooner than later.

Very long story long, it’s been one step forward and two steps back all season long, and that is incredibly disappointing to a fan base that was hoping to see the Wings push for a playoff spot all season long during the 2024-2025 campaign.

That makes it harder for the team to sell tickets, and while the team is as airtight as a nuclear submarine, with no air bubbles leaking out of the management group’s machinations, there might even be pressure on GM SY from the Wings’ sanguine, stoic ownership to shake things up and stabilize what feels like a sinking ship.

Whether that comes in the form of, again, a recall, a waiver claim, a meaningful trade or two, or a coaching change, it sure feels like change is needed, and change is needed imminently, lest the team waste its season over the course of the next six weeks.

And if the season is wasted, that of course begins a discussion as to how the team might take a purposeful step back and “tank” this year, which wouldn’t sit well with the paying public or the players.

That’s where we’re at today. It’s not pleasant, but the Red Wings are in a bind, and it’s going to take some hard work and effort on the part of the current roster and coaches to get out of the team’s seemingly interminable funk.