Watching the Detroit Red Wings gather for an outdoor photo at centre ice, it still felt like you were looking at something special. Maybe it was the wonderful white Centennial Classic sweaters, or the fact there was just enough sunlight present to remind you of the unique setting. Whatever the case, when the Wings bunched together and flashed their grins, it seemed like an aesthetic worthy of a franchise that spent the better part of 20 years as the NHL’s standard bearers.
After a few camera clicks, though, the Wings dispersed, peeled off the uniforms they’ll be wearing on New Year’s Day versus the Toronto Maple Leafs and got down to the business of practising in solid red and white jerseys. With no numbers on the back, it was difficult from afar to tell who was who on a team that used to be populated by stars you could spot from a galaxy away. As pucks were fired and the odd outlet pass went astray, the Wings began to visually morph back into what is still sometimes hard to believe they’ve become: just one squad in a sizable swath of teams desperately searching for a winning formula.
The difference between Detroit and the rest of the NHL’s lower-middle class, of course, is the Motor City’s remarkable 25-season run without missing the playoffs. Forget other sports teams, it’s basically between the Red Wings and The Simpsons to see who can keep what they’ve got going on the longest.
But you don’t require any more brain power than thick-skulled Homer Simpson to see the Wings are in a world of hurt these days. And you can’t help but wonder whether a clean break with history might—for reasons both real and abstract—be necessary for Detroit to truly start the climb back to the ranks of NHL power.
To get a sense of the Wings’ current state, consider the club has just three regulation-time victories since Oct. 25. If not for an early-season, six-game winning streak, Detroit would be even closer to the bottom of the league, as opposed to its present spot in 24th with 36 points in 36 outings. Due to the sorry nature of the Atlantic Division, playoff talk could still persist around Detroit for a while, especially if it manages to string together some more victories.
“We’ll be right there,” said captain Henrik Zetterberg, whose been down this road a few times before in recent seasons. “We’re not going to be in by many points, we’re not going to be out by many points.”
If Detroit is ultimately on the positive side of the scenario Zetterberg laid out, the annual accolades will roll in and rightfully so. There’s never been less to choose between NHL clubs and the Wings’ ability to always climb into the top eight goes well beyond impressive.
The problem is, it’s just not all that exciting.
“I think the streak is more for media and everyone around [the team],” Zetterberg said. “For us, we want to make the post-season, and if you make the post-season, you automatically continue the streak. But we’re not really playing for the streak, we’re playing to have a chance to win the Cup.”
This is where we get into that tricky territory when an accomplished, competitive athlete sees one thing, while the outside world views something completely different.
There’s precious little skin left on the Wings’ teeth after the way they’ve scraped into the big dance the past couple years. They’ve failed to advance past Round 1 in each of the past three springs and they have a combined five playoff victories during that stretch. This year, the Wings rank 20th in goals-against per game and 25th in average goals-for. Dylan Larkin is the only player on the club with 10 tallies and the 36-year-old Zetterberg is on pace to lead them in scoring with just 57 points.
Does anyone believe they’re a team on the precipice of vaulting forward?
What Detroit desperately needs is an infusion of young talent, something their Centennial Classic rivals from Toronto have been benefitting from during their startling metamorphosis. There’s a reason Mike Babcock left Detroit for Toronto and it’s not all about the zeroes on his contract. When you’ve coached Cup-winning clubs headlined by Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom, you understand better than anyone that trying to win without those pillar players is a mug’s game.
Don’t forget, the other club Babcock nearly bolted for was the stripped-down, high-drafting Buffalo Sabres.
Could Detroit, a team always asking the most of itself, ever embrace the tear-it-down approach? It doesn’t seem likely, but it also might not need to be something as declared and dramatic as what’s happened with division rivals in Toronto and Buffalo.
The Winnipeg Jets aren’t in the midst of an overt rebuild, yet they employ sniper Patrick Laine thanks to some lottery luck that got them the 2016 second overall pick after finishing 24th—as in, precisely where the Wings are right now—last season. The Columbus Blue Jackets are riding higher than anyone in hockey right now and 2015 eighth overall pick Zach Werenski, a rookie defenceman, is a big reason why. Ivan Provorov, picked one spot ahead of Werenski, is logging more than 20 minutes per night on the Philadelphia Flyers blue line as an NHL freshman.
The Leafs required a No. 1 pick for Auston Matthews, but fourth and eighth overall picks were good enough to get it done as well with Mitch Marner and William Nylander, two more examples of the type of young players we see thriving all over the league.
The Wings’ last top-10 draft selection was Martin Lapointe in 1991, so even a couple years of selecting, say, third and seventh overall, would be a game-changer. And while the Wings haven’t exactly killed it at the draft recently—and, let’s face it, it’s harder than ever to find superstars like Zetterberg and Datsyuk deep on the board the way Detroit once did—there’s still enough smart hockey people around the club to supplement higher selections with shrewd calls later on.
A lottery pick would be the tangible benefit to finally missing the playoffs, but you also wonder if there’s actually some symbolic value to the streak ending. That way, the conversation can more easily turn from what’s gone on to what needs to happen next.
The Wings can still hang the old banners to keep fans feeling warm and fuzzy when they move into a new rink next fall. But it’s increasingly obvious that shift needs to be paired with a fresh face or two for Detroit to recreate its real glory days.