Detroit Red Wings: 5 Players Who Need to Get Off to Fast Starts in 2011-12

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Any die-hard Red Wings fan might compare the night before a new season is like the night before Christmas—it's a long 24 hour wait.

The NHL opened the 95th season on Thursday, but Detroit Red Wings fans had to wait one more night.

But if Detroit Red Wings fans thought this offseason was long, just imagine how much the players wanted the season to begin.

Last night's 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators began a long, grueling 82 game journey towards the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Some players, including captain Nick Lindstrom, want one last crack at the Stanley Cup while others like rookie Cory Emmerton are looking at their first crack at the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Playing in Detroit is an opportunity of a lifetime, as the Red Wings are still such a talented team.

But with the high talent on the team comes high expectations.

Some of these expectations are realistic, while others are just out of the question.

At any rate, here are the five Red Wings who need to get out of the gate quickly to start this season.

1. Johan Franzen

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Johan Franzen may have put up 28 goals and 55 points last year, but any Red Wings fan knows that if he were more consistent he would have put up 40 goals.

After his five goal game against Ottawa, Franzen had just two goals in the last 27 games of the season.

Talk about a drop off.

Franzen needs to get going early and contribute often.

He needs to get to the net and use the soft hands he has to put the puck in the net some more this season.

With Tomas Holmstrom getting older, Franzen might start being called upon to assume some net front duties, playing the role of the pest.

2. Valterri Filppula

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Even though Valterri Filppula only played 71 games last season, he almost matched his career high in points last season.

This season Filppula receives a treat as he has been playing on the same line as Datsyuk and Franzen.

That line combination if anything should see Filppula produce a lot more points this season.

Filppula's fast start is critical to Detroit's success as far as their secondary scoring is concerned.

If Filppula is able to get going early in the season, Detroit should be able to finally see their Finnish playmaker come into his own.

3. Jiri Hudler

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Knock knock, can Jiri Hudler come out to play?

Well we'll see if he can step up his production from last season.

Hudler put up just 37 points last season, a far cry 20 points below his career high of 57 points in 2008-09.

He had just 10 goals last season, 13 below his career high, and he often looked lost on the ice.

Hudler will get off to a fast start if he shoots more than last season. Hudler had just 105 shots on goal and his goal total reflects it clearly.

Shoot more and Hudler will create more chances for himself to get off to a fast start.

Hudler benefited from a Pavel Datsyuk forced turnover and roofed a backhander in last night's game against Ottawa.

It will be interesting to see if he can continue to put up points on a semi-regular basis.

4. Pavel Datsyuk

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Pavel Datsyuk is a catalyst up front.

He and Zetterberg are the reason that Detroit did not crash and burn after Yzerman, Shanahan, Hull and Fedorov left.

He is not getting any younger, but he seems to be just keep doing what he does best: turning defense into offense through his takeaways.

We saw it again last night with his assist on Hudler's goal as he stripped a Senator of the puck and made a nice pass to Hudler who buried it.

Datsyuk will have to continue this kind of play if Detroit is to have another successful campaign.

5. Jonathan Ericsson

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Jonathan Ericsson was a pleasant surprise last night.

After I had been ripping on him all offseason, the big Swedish defenseman went plus-three with an assist.

It was only a rebuilding Ottawa team, but it's good to see Ericsson taking strides to become an up and coming top four defenseman like Detroit's management envisioned him originally.

His ability to get out to a fast start, especially in the defensive zone, will dictate how successful opposing forward lines are against Detroit's third defensive pairing of Ericsson and Kindl.

If Ericsson and his defensive partner Jakub Kindl (who was also plus-three and had an assist) can continue stellar play on the third defensive pairing, Detroit should have no problem improving their defense from last season's sub-par performance.

The Rundown After the Season Opener

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Detroit showed a lot of promise in yesterday's opener against Ottawa.

The Red Wings jumped on numerous opportunities and cashed in on a lot of them as well, jumping out to the 5-0 lead.

But in the third period, Detroit allowed three goals on 11 third period shots.

Two of those were on the power play, as Detroit again played down to its opponent and showed weakness on the penalty kill.

Makes all Red Wings fans wonder what will be different about this season going forward as there seems to be signs of last year's campaign (bad penalty killing, getting lazy with big leads) still evident in this squad.

If the above five mentioned players can have a solid start here out of the gate, Detroit should be in good shape going forward in the month of October.

It's always good to get the first win under the belt in the first game of the season, and even though the end of the game was not as attractive to watch for Wings fans as the first two and a half periods, the Red Wings pulled out the victory and looking at the standings, that's all that really matters.

 

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