Understatement of the day: the Red Wings need a lot of work
The Detroit Red Wings may be in trouble. Monday night saw them blow multiple leads to the San Jose Sharks and lose 5-4 in overtime, finishing up a California road trip without a win in all three games. Now, they find themselves in seventh in the Atlantic Division with a 7-9-2 record, and with the current state of the team, it’s hard to see how the path they take to improving.
Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk talked about the Red Wings current situation on Daily Faceoff Live.
Frank Seravalli: This is not good. And I don’t see a path out for Detroit. We’ve all been wondering, what is the security of Derek LaLonde? Is this a coach issue? Is this a roster construction issue? This defense, to me, is nowhere near NHL playoff caliber. Cam Talbot has actually been fine, but their goaltending as a whole continues to struggle.
Look, I picked the Detroit Red Wings to finish last in this division. They’re tied for it right now, just by points percentage, and by virtue of playing one fewer game, they’re right there with the Montreal Canadiens. This is a team that has a significant talent gap between themselves and everyone else. And I think if you look at the Ottawa Senators, the Buffalo Sabres, the Wings, all these teams that have been competing with each other in the same division, who’s gonna break out of this rebuild first? I’d argue that the way they are situated in the standings right now, Sens, Sabres, Red Wings, is probably the correct order. But the curveball is, I think, in relatively short order, next season you’re going to see the Montreal Canadians zoom past them.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Yeah, that seems entirely possible. I would comment here, they got to build their defense. They can’t allowing 35 shots to San Jose.
Frank Seravalli: Simon Edvinsson, Mo Seider, great pieces, but you can’t fill out your roster with the rest of that group. Some of the talent-acquisition decisions made by Steve Yzerman’s team have been really headshaking. Ben Chiarot, Justin Holl, Jeff Petry, it’s not good. It needs a lot of work.
You can watch the full episode here…