Detroit Red Wings: 7 Keys to a Hot Start This Season

The Detroit Red Wings will kick off their 2011-12 season on Friday night against the Ottawa Senators.

Detroit shed some of their veteran presence this past offseason as Brian Rafalski, Kris Draper and Chris Osgood hung up their skates.

Detroit will be moving on with new roster additions such as Ian White, Mike Commodore, Ty Conklin, Cory Emmerton and Fabian Brunnstrom who was signed on a professional try-out contract.

The biggest questions this year rest on the shoulders of Detroit's defense as it needs to bounce back from a disappointing year last year.

But how does Detroit go about starting this season off on the right foot?

Read on for the seven ways Detroit can get a jump start on another successful season.

1. A Red Hot Power Play

The Red Wings had the fifth ranked power play in the NHL last year.

A big reason for that is the player above, captain Nick Lidstrom.

Lidstrom is still one of the best power play quarterbacks in the NHL.

The Red Wings lost Brian Rafalski, who was one of the best power play defensemen in the league last year, and that's where the play of Ian White will ultimately demonstrate how successful the Red Wings are on the power play this season.

Detroit scored 67 of their 257 total goals on the power play last season, so it doesn't take a genius to realize that their power play must again be top 10 as a minimum for a good season.

Seeing a hot start for the Red Wings' power play will go a long way in giving them the upper hand in close games this season.

2. A Strong Forecheck

Watching Darren Helm skate is a thing of beauty.

Watching him skate and hit an opposing player is an art form.

But Detroit's players must learn from Helm's 132 hits last year and pick up the forecheck.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying forechecking is all about hitting, it isn't.

Darren Helm also had 46 takeaways (plus 26 in giveaway/takeaway margin in all), and that says something about his ability to get the puck back for Detroit.

Detroit's ability to force takeaways in their offensive zone and neutral zone fuels their ability to turn puck possession into goals.

Detroit plays that puck possession style offense so well, but their puck possession is contingent on getting the puck first.

This is where Detroit's strong forecheck must get off to an outstanding start.

3. Playing Fundamentally Sound Defense in Their Own Zone

Most people talk about the retirements of Brian Rafalski and the retirement of Kris Draper as though they were bad things.

Although this may appear true at first with Rafalski's puck moving skills and Draper's face-off prowess, they were getting pretty old, and last year, Rafalski was subject to giving the puck away on a regular basis in his own zone.

The signing of Ian White means that Detroit gets a healthy top four defenseman who can play solid positional hockey in his own zone.

However, White cannot do it by himself.

The defense cannot do it by themselves.

The forwards must come back and play solid team defense in their own zone.

It doesn't take much thought to remember a given play last year where Detroit's forwards (and sometimes defense as well) left Jimmy Howard out to dry and he gave up a goal on a breakaway or the like.

Playing some fundamental team defense would eliminate a substantial portion of those goals, and I feel as though Detroit's emphasis should be on team defense if they want to get out to a hot start this season.

4. A Re-Vamped Penalty Kill

Detroit's penalty kill wasn't bad last season.

But ask any Detroit player on the squad last year and they will tell you it was far from perfect.

The penalty kill last season sat at 82.3 percent, good for 17th in the NHL.

Nothing to rejoice about, but it can be better this season with attention to detail.

Detroit must get pucks out of the zone when they have the chance on the penalty kill. They must clear the puck all the way down the ice and not just to center. Some of Detroit's players like Lidstrom are still pretty old, and they need time to get to the bench and make a change on the penalty kill.

Icing the puck all the way down the rink gives Detroit time to make a decent change and get fresh legs out there.

Too many times last season, Detroit was simply too tired, too often to get the big penalty kill when they needed it.

This season, a heavy emphasis should be placed on the penalty kill, a few percentage points difference over the season makes a huge difference in the standings overall.

A stalwart penalty kill will dictate what kind of season the Red Wings will have defensively.

5. Take Away the Shooting Lanes

Oh hey, it's that Brad Stuart fellow again.

Stuart blocked 114 shots last year, but the Red Wings were still 17th overall giving up 30.7 shots per game.

Detroit managed 33.6 shots per game, averaging almost three more shots per game than their opponents, but the Red Wings should start blocking some more shots and try and get that shots against number down a bit.

Blocking more shots allows for transitions to offense as well as just frustrating the other team.

As a hockey player, you miss 100 percent of the shots you never take, and a blocked shot is just like a shot that never happened.

A high shot differential favoring Detroit will be critical for the Red Wings in the short-term and long-term.

6. Secondary Scoring Is a Must

Any NHL fan knows about Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Franzen on Detroit.

But few can name any further than that.

Going off of that note, it won't be Datsyuk, Zetterberg or Franzen carrying the Red Wings offense through this season; it will be their second, third and fourth line forwards.

The man pictured above, Jiri Hudler, owes it to Detroit and himself to get back on track and get more than 10 goals and 37 points like he did last year.

A good start by Detroit will be further accented if they can find themselves getting goals from their depth players and not just their superstars.

Unless Franzen scores five goals in a game again, a hot start is 100 percent dependent on depth scoring that the Red Wings bring to the table.

7. Good Goaltending

Detroit starting goaltender Jimmy Howard proved last year that he didn't need his Calder-runner-up-type numbers for the Red Wings to win the Central Division.

In fact, he still tallied the same number of wins as he did in his rookie season.

But Howard needs to be at an NHL level with the quality of goal-tending that comes out in his play.

He cannot have any mental gaffes or misjudge any dump-ins around the boards.

He will be beaten for sure, but he just needs to limit the goals to pucks that he has no chance of stopping.

Detroit has shown that they don't need their goaltenders to be great at their job to win a Stanley Cup, but it wouldn't hurt for Howard to show some improvement over last year's below-average GAA and save percentage numbers.

Howard's increase or decrease in his performance will go a long way in telling us how good these Red Wings can be this season, and it is also crucial for Howard to give his team a chance to win every night for the Red Wings to get off to a hot start.

Looking Forward to the Season

Are you, the reader, looking forward to this season as much as I am?

I doubt it.

Every year, the Red Wings are slightly different than the year before.

But each year, Detroit finds ways to win and turn skeptics into believers in terms of what they thought Detroit could do.

Look for new roster players Fabian Brunnstrom and Cory Emmerton to make a huge impact within the first five to 10 games of the season.

Here's hoping Ian White and Mike Commodore keep Detroit a contender and don't turn out to be boneheaded moves.

Just over two days to a new Red Wings season, but hey who's counting?

It should be another good season, here's hoping the Wings get off on the right foot this year.

Follow Isaac on Twitter for more article updates.