Analyzing The Detroit Red Wings' Season Thus Far

After a painful defeat in Game Seven of last year’s Stanley Cup Finals, the Detroit Red Wings came into the 2009-'10 season looking like a different team.

Sure, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg are still making flashy moves on the offensive end while Nicklas Lidstrom is still a Norris Trophy-caliber player on defense. But the Wings did lose players like Michael Samuelsson and Jiri Hudler, key role players in the last couple Stanley Cup runs.

The team does also have goalie Chris Osgood, a net minder who had a lackluster regular season last year but was stellar in the postseason.

Now the team has given bigger roles to younger players, including Ville Leino and Darren Helm. The Wings also brought back former players Todd Bertuzzi and Jason Williams to shore up the rest of the lines.

The team suffered consecutive losses to the St. Louis Blues in Sweden, a special weekend of NHL action in which many Wings got to play in front of friends and family in their home country. Losing the first two games was not a great start to the season, considering how last season ended.

And with many pundits picking teams like the Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks to win the Western Conference, the Red Wings may actually perform better as somewhat of a dark horse. Yeah, I said it.

The Wings are being placed on the backburner in terms of once again reaching the Stanley Cup Finals, which the team itself should not find all that insulting. They did only make the finals two years in a row, and somehow getting back for the third time would be an almost unparalleled feat in an era full of salary caps and parity. I am not saying the team cannot go back to the Promised Land, but the odds are definitely against them.

Before there is any distinct possibility of getting far into the playoffs (assuming the Wings will make the playoffs yet again), the team needs to address its current issues. It is no secret that the team is getting older at some positions, so the younger players must step up on their behalf. The team must play with more enthusiasm for a full 60 minutes, something they did not do against the Blues in their first two games.

All hope is not lost, though. It is the beginning of the season and there is still a lot of time for improvement. Counting the Red Wings out in October is about as crazy as believing Alexander Ovechkin is a mediocre player.