Detroit Red Wings' Hot Start to 2011-12 Season Can Only Be a Good Thing

Despite summertime naysayers and doomsday predictors, the Detroit Red Wings sit atop the NHL standings.

Jiri Hudler is among the top five in team scoring, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg are once again proving to be an unstoppable offensive duo and the young defensive duo of Jakub Kindl and Jonathan Ericsson may very well be the team's best.

Now, if you're reading this and scoffing at how ridiculous it is to get so excited about these things after just two games, I agree.

However, what I'm laying out here might very well be true 40 games from now.

Over the past few seasons, the Detroit Red Wings have been a team that has fallen almost immediately into a groove at the start of the season.

These grooves aren't always good.

For example, in 2008-09, the Wings opened the year against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Not only did they lose the game, but the then defending Stanley Cup champions had a whopping 23 giveaways.

What became their Achilles heel all through that season and doomed them in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals?

Giveaways.

Last season, the Wings came out to a 2-0 start as well.

But, early on, it was clear that some of the guys they had hoped would be contributing to that success (cough, Jiri Hudler, cough) were not on board from the get go and, as we saw, never really recovered.

The point I'm driving at here is the Detroit Red Wings team we see in Game 1 of the season, is typically very similar to the team we see at season's end.

In this way, they are remarkably consistent, in good and bad ways.

What we've seen through their first two games this season provides reason for optimism, if not unabashed hope, that this year's team might very well be one to be reckoned with.

The young guys like Cory Emmerton, Jakub Kindl, Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader and Jonathan Ericsson look right at home and are already establishing their value.

Veterans like Todd Bertuzzi and Dan Cleary look no worse for wear as they too are making an impact shift after shift.

Then, there's Jiri Hudler.

Not only has he started his year with a goal and an assist, but his strength on the puck and energy are also markedly better than they were a season ago.

To quote Darth Vader, "he may yet be of some use to us."

Speaking of men in masks, you might be wondering why I'm avoiding any talk of Jimmy Howard.

Well, it's true, three goals got past him in the season opener and his stats are off to a bad start.

However, if you saw that game, you'd know that none of those goals were ones he had much of a chance on.

The defensive breakdowns and bad deflections that got Ottawa on the board three times in that game are concerning, inasmuch as they represent another troublesome groove the Wings got into last season.

But, based on the fact that Howie stopped all the 'stoppable' shots in his 2011-12 debut, there's no reason to doubt his ability to do so the rest of the year.

And finally, we have Ty Conklin.

After being unable to stop a beach ball in St. Louis last season, he starts his second go-around in Detroit with a 29-save shutout on the road.

Not bad for a guy who's scheduled to ride pine most of the season.

The Detroit Red Wings are off to an excellent start to the 2011-12 season, and though they've only got two games in the books, the trends developing early suggest the next 80 games will yield much more success than they will failure.

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