Column: Red Wings Reliant on Hope

Dylan Larkin

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Dylan Larkin

In the wake of last night’s loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets at home, Detroit Red Wings Captain Dylan Larkin addressed the media scrum with eyes that seemed to be looking somewhere that wasn’t in the locker room.

“I hope that’s not the one and I hope the Minnesota one is not the one that is the final nail in the coffin, and I hope that we get some help and we have something to play for. To get in.”

Hope, it seems, is all the Red Wings have. They don’t have overwhelming skill, they don’t have a logic-defying goaltender, and still they don’t know what they’re doing wrong, apparently.

After faceplanting themselves into the back of the playoffs standings again this year, Detroit is on the outside looking in and despite the path ahead seemingly having a clear and in-sight endpoint, it doesn’t make it any less treacherous or painful. Facing the reality of ten years of no playoffs in “Hockeytown” even after the return of the moniker to center ice, fans are louder than ever in their cries for something to change.

And they aren’t wrong to be demanding change, and answers.

This is the third year in a row where a disappointing March has led to the Red Wings having to dig themselves out of a hole they do not appear to have the ability to. More often than not, the Red Wings find themselves playing on their back foot against other teams as the final playoff push begins.

“We didn’t like going down one to nothing that quick[against Columbus]. But in the past few weeks when that has happened we’ve gone away and all of a sudden it’s two or three.” Said coach Todd McLellan.

Though the Red Wings kept the game mostly competitive, that hasn’t been their regular pattern, at least for any 60 minute hockey game. The Red Wings have been blown out (or nearly blown out) by the Penguins, the Flyers, and if not for a late rally, the Minnesota Wild in the past week and a half.

They’ve lost ground in the standings, and as the captain said, they have to hope that another team might help them and implode like Detroit does once the calendar month starts with an “M.” For that matter, they haven’t strung a pair of wins together more than once since December.

It’s a jarring indictment on a regime that hasn’t managed to meaningfully improve the Red Wings roster since they sold off half the team at the 2023 trade deadline. At this point they shouldn’t be hoping that someone else will help them in, they should be hoping that someone else gives them a better seed at the very least.

Three years on, they’re still looking for a top six forward to play alongside Larkin and score in the hard areas after sending away Tyler Bertuzzi.

They’re still looking to solidify the top four of their defense after sending away Filip Hronek.

That’s not to say that letting either of those players go was a mistake.

The mistake has been letting this front office repeatedly hand out bad free agent contracts in the offseason while hoping that adding one player at a time to solve one problem at a time will change anything.

This team has too many flaws to try to piecemeal a solution together.

By the start of next season, this team needs another play-driving, scoring forward in the top six. Having two 30 goal scorers on the team is not enough.

They need to have a playable backup goalie, and they need to actually play him. Sebastian Cossa‘s earned a look at the NHL level, and Steve Yzerman and the Red Wings have already burned all of his waiver eligible years.

Finally, the blueline needs to consist of someone other than just Mo Seider on a night to night basis. The young german is playing 25 plus minutes a night, and that isn’t a pace that’s sustainable over a career. Or even the next couple of years if he plans to get to 500 consecutive starts to a career.

At this point for Yzerman and the Yzerplan, it’s s–t or get off the pot.

Fingers can be blamed in every direction, but there’s only one group in the building who keeps the keys.

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