Some Good, Some Bad, And A Little Ugly: Red Wings Midseason Awards

With the regular season at its midway point, the Detroit Red Wings are continuing to battle for the top spot in the Western Conference, at this writing five points down to the San Jose Sharks. 

While the Wings looked shaky early on (a brutal beating by the Bruins comes to mind) with their once vaunted penalty kill in the basement of the league, they are attempting to shake their much-ballyhooed Stanley Cup “hangover.”

But still remain the gold standard to which all other teams are compared.  The awards for some of the good, the bad, and the ugly so far this season go to:

The “Who’s-Going-to-Start-This-Thing” Award:  Ty Conklin has been solid throughout the season, most recently starting in his third Winter Classic game, where the Wings defeated the upstart Chicago Blackhawks 6-4. 

Osgood, who also looked solid in net on Monday against the Stars despite a defeat in overtime, struggled early on in the season, no doubt nagged by a pesky groin injury. 

The Wings are hoping that Osgood will continue to improve and not give up the three goals per game he was consistently allowing in the early part of the season.  Both Conklin and Osgood will continue to vie for the top spot, but Coach Mike Babcock will undoubtedly play Conklin more as the season wears on to save Osgood for the playoffs where he outshone now-retired goalie Dominik Hasek. 

A three-time Stanley Cup champion with a fantastic record at 14-2-5 on the season, Osgood will bring his goals against down from a bleak 3.11 per game, where it currently stands.  For his steadily improving performances look to Osgood to retain his top net minder spot.

The “Golden Swede” Award: The once powerful Wings' D has struggled this season despite having the best defenseman in the league in Niklas Lidstrom. As well as powerful blue line guys like Brian Rafalski and Niklas Kronwall. 

Kronwall has not seemed himself this season, despite being a thoroughbred in the playoffs, where he was crushing the opposition with huge hits.  But not all the blame can fall on Kronwall. 

To a man, the Wings have allowed too many giveaways and allowing the other teams’ offense to crash the net at will without any retribution. This has led to a paltry 80.45 percent penalty kill, one of the worst in the league. 

I’ve heard some Wings fans say that Lidstrom is the D-man who most looks off his game, but to be fair, the vaunted two-way play of last season’s Selke trophy winner Pavel Datsyuk and former linemate Henrik Zetterberg hasn’t exactly been up to par either. 

The entire team has looked as if they are standing around at key moments, and the Wings have long been accused of lacking punch (literally) when it comes to defense and gritty play.  But Lidstrom still wears the C and even on his worst off-night can make playing the position look flawless.  He will rally the Wings and get them back to true form down the stretch. 

The “Now-You-See-It-Now-You-Don’t” Award:  Copperfield.  Henning.  Blaine.  Datsyuk.  Watching him is like watching a sun rise, a beautiful woman slowly shed her clothes, or a newborn puppy open its eyes for the first time. But only a hundred times better. 

Datsyuk is the modern Houdini, the magician who can make a puck seemingly disappear only to have it reappear on the tape of his stick as he fires it into the net before anyone even realizes it’s all just an illusion. 

With 14 multi-point games already this season, Datsyuk continues to amaze teammates and opposing players alike.  In the game against the Stars, the Versus announcer, still in disbelief over a goal Datsyuk scored, called him a “sorcerer.” 

A video on Youtube declares that Datsyuk, like Eric Clapton before him, “is God.”  Even though Hossa currently has more goals (21), Datsyuk has the most points (50) on the team and remains the Wings go-to guy.

The “Whatever-Happened-to-You-Know-Who?” Award: What has happened to Henrik Zetterberg?  Did he and his hot Swedish girlfriend break up?  Is his clothing line not making money in these hard economic times?  Whatever the problem is, here’s hoping that Zetterberg, who has at times had some fans wondering if he was even on the ice, gets back to form. 

The real problem?  Babcock took Zetterberg off of Datsyuk’s line and gave him the second line to center.  Now while this isn’t a problem for Datsyuk, who could score with beer league players on his line. Zetterberg has often looked lost (and maybe this is just my imagination, but somewhat betrayed as well). 

Hossa and Datsyuk, pairing up on the first line, continue to rack up the points, to the delight of Wings' fans the world over.  But I am convinced Hossa will not return to the team next year, and still believe that Babcock would be better served to put Z and Pasha back together.

Last season they tore it up, both having career highs in points.  Sure, Hossa is great also, but with all the talent the Wings possess, why try and fix something that isn’t broken? 

Try pairing Franzen and Hudler with Hossa and watch that line produce points like crazy. I applaud Babcock for mixing it up, but putting Z and Pasha back together with Holmstrom on the first line will undoubtedly bring the magic back to mesmerize us all come playoff time.