Who's Overachieving, Underperforming for the Detroit Red Wings Early This Season

The Detroit Red Wings are off to a 6-2-3 start, good for top three in the Atlantic Division and fourth place in the Eastern Conference.

The Red Wings wouldn't have gotten this far without some players overachieving but could be better had some players not underperformed.

So who is overachieving and underachieving for the Detroit Red Wings early in the 2014-15 season?

Overachieving: Jimmy Howard

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In the early part of his career, Jimmy Howard never had to be "The Guy" for Detroit. 

The Red Wings could always outscore opponents and took matters into their own hands offensively more nights than not. Since the departure of Nicklas Lidstrom (and even a couple seasons leading up to that), Howard has had to be a lot better to keep Detroit in games.

Coming off the second-worst statistical season of his career in terms of goals-against average and save percentage, Howard had to be better this season.

How much better has he been?

Well, with a 5-1-2 record, 1.97 GAA and a 92.9 save percentage, Howard is playing the best hockey of his career through the first eight games of this season. Should he be able to maintain these kind of numbers throughout the season, Jimmy Howard would almost certainly be in the conversation for a Vezina Trophy.

The American netminder will have plenty of chances to shine, as the Wings have been prone to giving up the puck in the most inopportune places early this season.

Underperforming: Jonathan Ericsson

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While it is too early in the season to draw any real bona fide conclusions regarding Ericsson's play in the 2014-15 season, two negative things stand out thus far: Ericsson's lack of effort and his lack of discipline. 

His 12 penalty minutes in 11 games lead the Wings in time in the box this season, and prior to Sunday's shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres, he had picked up a minor penalty in four consecutive contests. As a top-pairing defenseman with Niklas Kronwall, Ericsson needs to exhibit a better work ethic and be in better position going forward. 

Given, the Swede has been playing with a finger that wasn't 100 percent to start the season, per Ansar Khan of MLive.com. But Ericsson is still responsible for maintaining his level of play and removing himself from the lineup if he can't do so.

Overachieving: Justin Abdelkader

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Eleven games into the Detroit Red Wings' season and Justin Abdelkader is second in team scoring. That usually means things are going really badly (not scoring at all) or that things are going really well with Abdelkader actually scoring.

Thankfully, it is the latter point, as Abdelkader has 10 points in 11 games and is on fire to start the season. 

But that's what fans expect from someone playing on the same line as Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, right?

Not necessarily.

Abdelkader played the same role last season through various time periods but without what one would call sustained success. Additionally, Abdelkader wasn't even drafted to play an offensive top-six forward role with Detroit but more of a defensive game.

The difference this season is that Abdelkader is creating his own luck, taking advantage of turnovers in the opposition's end and burying it when he gets the chance.

If the former Michigan State Spartan can sustain any level of success close to this scoring output, the Wings are in a very good position for the remainder of the season.

Underperforming: Darren Helm

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For no fault of his own, Darren Helm has been snakebitten offensively once again this season. 

His four assists in 11 games might seem like acceptable production from Helm. But the fact of the matter is that for the quality minutes he is getting on the power play and playing with players like Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg from time to time, Helm needs to be producing more.

Instead, he has just nine even-strength shots on goal in 11 games. He is 11th in even-strength ice time after struggling through the first 11 games of the season. 

Bottom line: He needs to find his game and start earning more time on ice.

Overachieving: Luke Glendening

When Luke Glendening isn't busy getting phantom goaltender-interference calls on himself, he is dominating the faceoff circle for the Red Wings.

His 56.4 faceoff percentage ranks second on the Red Wings behind only Pavel Datsyuk and ranks 14th in the NHL for faceoff percentage among players who have taken at least 100 faceoffs this season.

Glendening has adopted a Kris Draper-type role, as he is put out in key defensive-zone faceoff draws, averaging almost 3.5 minutes of time-killing penalties every game.

Glendening's excellence at faceoffs is a timely acquired skill for Detroit, as once again, Stephen Weiss is out of the lineup. With Weiss out of the lineup, the Wings would normally have to split up Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg to generate offense and win faceoffs, but Glendening takes some of the heat off with his prowess in the circle.

This ability to use Glendening interchangeably with Zetterberg or Datsyuk has provided Detroit the luxury of getting more offense from the Euro Twins due to both of them being able to rest at the same time, leaving Glendening to take faceoffs.

Underperforming: Stephen Weiss

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While other players like Tomas Jurco would be good candidates for this final underperforming slide, Stephen Weiss flat-out just takes the cake.

Weiss could have replaced Valtteri Filppula had he actually, well, played hockey last season and this season.

But instead, the longtime Florida Panthers forward is sidelined yet again with another groin injury. The issue for Weiss and Detroit is that the Wings have no idea where they went wrong in trying to get Weiss back on the ice.

Red Wings general manager Ken Holland, obviously not a groin specialist, spoke on Weiss' injury, per Ansar Khan of MLive: 

"

He's going to go see 3-4 people, we're going to work on it. We need time to elapse. We need to see over the next 3-4 days does he get better or get worse or stay the same. We don't think it's anything more than some type of groin pull but we need to see how he feels...Who knows on groins...I've seen three-day groin injuries and I've seen month groin injuries. That's why you need time to elapse and see how he feels.

"

The fact is that Weiss simply can't stay healthy, stay on the ice and play the role that the Wings originally signed him to play.