going (of course the Red Wing season is only a week old so all could change, but I just read this and found it weirdly similar).
Defense that is a shambles, injuries all over the place. No power play, 0-15 so far this year. Can't score goals, even with two of the games best goal scorers on the team. Goaltending has been OK for the most part, Howard keeping them in games (the one difference I guess between the two teams), but when you have no defense it's tough to make every single stop. The Red Wings are a team flailing around looking for an identity with seemingly no answers to be had.
in the West by Sports Illustrated. I have them clawing for a playoff spot this year. No training camp for a team that has to fashion an entirely new identity post-Lidstrom was a raw deal for them. I truly expect this to be a tough year, and for the next one or two after that to be difficult also. The question is can Holland rebuild the Wings a third time? (I consider the emergence of Zetty and Datsyuk the second time).
I told people before the year that they weren't going to make the playoffs. The defense corps is downright awful and they've got about 12 bottom-six forwards and 3-4 that are actually good.
It's seems really weird to me that Holland has almost gotten gun-shy about making moves. That guy probably has a longer leash than any GM out there, but he's admitted that he's pretty much scared to make trades (something about a prospect turning into a decent player, not even a good one) at this point. I don't get it. I appreciate the Cups, but he hasn't done a whole heckuva lot to help improve this team over the past few seasons, unless you like bringing in players that have previously played for Detroit.
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