Detroit Red Wings Will Be Dangerous in 2014-15 as Long as Everyone Stays Healthy

They are 11 percent into their 82-game schedule, but there's reason to believe the Detroit Red Wings won't need a mix of prayers, luck and a furious two-month goal-scoring pace from Gustav Nyquist to get into the playoffs like they did last season.

The Red Wings are 5-2-2 after rallying for a 4-2 road victory against the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night, and they used the same successful recipe they've been using throughout the 2014-15 season.

• one tablespoon great goaltending from Jimmy Howard

• two tablespoons of improved team defense

• three cups of outstanding play from Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg

Howard made 25 saves Friday to improve to 4-1-2 with a 1.96/.928 split. The Red Wings allowed 27 shots, which is right in line with their average of 26.9 per game this season, sixth-best mark in the league. Datsyuk had a goal and an assist while Zetterberg had two assists, including one that started with a wonderful play in the neutral zone to steal a pass and help set up the winner and second goal of the game by Justin Abdelkader. 

Zetterberg is tied for fifth in league scoring with 12 points in nine games, while Datsyuk has five points in four games after missing the start of the season with a shoulder ailment.

The narrative for the 2014-15 Detroit Red Wings will revolve around their health, and rightfully so, as last year's team spent more time in MRI machines than at the rink. 

But this year's team, at least through October, is playing a much different game that's providing better results.

On this date last season, the still-healthy Red Wings were a reasonable 6-4-2 but had lost four straight. Through 12 games, that team was allowing 32.4 shots per game, a number that decreased as the season progressed but one that represents a far cry from the tight-checking version of this year's squad.

The Capitals on Wednesday won the possession battle, out-attempting the Red Wings 39-29 (57.4 percent) at even strength, according to Natural Stat Trick. The Red Wings and Capitals entered their game, according to Hockey-Reference, as mirror images in Corsi close, and it's not as though Detroit "shut down" the Capitals, who had their fair share of chances to win a game that was decided more by inexplicable defensive-zone mistakes than any sort of puck-possession dominance.

Tom Mihalek/Associated Press

But that's the other difference this season—Howard is off to a fantastic start and has been winning one-goal games, which have constituted all but two of his starts.

Through this time last season, Howard was not dealing very well with that overwhelming shot volume. Howard had a commendable .915 save percentage but only a 3-4-2 mark, as a .915 is perfectly acceptable when a team is giving up 27 shots a night but it won't result in many team victories when that team is routinely allowing more than 30 shots per game.

It's as if the Red Wings and Howard made a deal this season: We'll allow fewer shots if you stop more shots.

And in the short term, it has worked.

In the long term, for this to continue to work (here comes that narrative), the Red Wings roster can't resemble an infirmary list over the rest of the season.

The Red Wings are the fifth-oldest team in the league, according to NHL Numbers, and, breaking news, older bodies tend to break down more easily than younger ones. According to Man Games Lost, only the Pittsburgh Penguins lost more man-games to injury last season than the Red Wings, who lost 421. And those were some irreplaceable men who weren't playing those games.

Six players—Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Todd Bertuzzi, Stephen Weiss and Darren Helm—missed at least 20 games, and in the case of Datsyuk and Zetterberg, they missed half the season. Daniel Alfredsson, Howard and Tomas Jurco were among a lengthy list of players who missed at least 10 games.

Franzen is already out with a groin injury, but otherwise, October could not have gone much better for the Red Wings health-wise.

Injuries are always portrayed as issues with toughness or frailty, but for the most part, it's a mix of genetics and luck. The genetics aren't likely to change all that much given this is mostly the same roster as last season, but it's unfathomable that the Red Wings would be just as unlucky with injuries again this season.

And if the injuries resurface to some extent, even if they are to Datsyuk and Zetterberg, the Red Wings look like a much better team behind their superstars, and that should bode well over the final 89 percent of the season.

All statistics via NHL.com.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.