It's been a tale of two seasons for the Red Wings, just like last season. Only last season had a happy ending as far as rebuilds go. The Wings grabbed points at a near-playoff pace down the stretch and, maybe more importantly, strengthened their identity as a tight-checking team. They were hard to play against, even for the Cup contenders in their division. Remember what Alex Nedeljkovic said about the Wings after coming over from the Hurricanes last summer?
"You have to be competitive in order to play in this league, and these guys were every single night. They gave us fits," he said. "There was never really a game, even though they finished in the bottom of the standings, it wasn't an easy game, by any means. We were .500 against them this year, so they're definitely a challenge."
The Wings were equally competitive in the first half of this season, if not so tight-checking. They had 50 points entering their 50th game for the first time since they last made the playoffs. They've crumbled in the last month. Detroit has one regulation win in its past 13 games, while giving up goals like they're going out of style. The Wings have allowed seven or more four times in this stretch, including nine to the Coyotes in one of the most embarrassing losses in recent franchise memory. They've gone from competitive to comatose.
"I think we would’ve all been pleased with the progress our team had made by the All-Star break," GM Steve Yzerman said Tuesday on 97.1 The Ticket as he wrapped up another trade deadline of planning for the future. "But really in the last month, six weeks, it’s been up and down and the downs -- some of these games giving up seven, eight, nine, 10 goals is painfully surprising.
"I can’t tell you that I blame it on anyone in particular. We give up too many chances, are our goalies a little bit shell-shocked? I’m not sure. Have we just hit a wall as a team, have our young kids hit a bit of a wall, are the veterans fading? I don’t know the exact answer to it, but what is obvious for us all is we have not been good enough defensively as a team."
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The reality for the Red Wings is they still have a long way to go. Even at their best this season, they weren't really in a playoff race. They're 23 points out after a turn for the worse. The playoff field in the East has been locked in place for the better part of three months. The gap between the top eight and everyone else is stark. Even with improvement next season, which of those eight are the Wings displacing? Detroit has climbed out of the rubble the past two years, but that was the easy part of its rebuild.
Yzerman, though, has no plans to change course. This was always going to be a slow -- and sometimes painful -- process. And while a mucky month obscure it, Yzerman does see progress. Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi are enjoying career years, with extensions coming their way. Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond have made huge impacts as rookies. The Wings are hoping to get a similar jolt next season from Simon Edvinsson and Jonatan Berggren. They're tracking toward another top-10 pick in the draft. They'll continue to search for the right free agents. Eventually, this comprises a winning team. The plan is the plan, and Yzerman is sticking to it.
"If we can keep adding one or two of our young guys over the course of the next three or four years, we have that nucleus of a pretty solid team," Yzerman said. "Unfortunately, it’s just a bit of a slow process. To think I can move five or six of them in all in the same year, it just takes time with each draft class you have. Hopefully we can add a free agent or two that speeds it up, but I think with the Seider and Raymond additions, you kind of see, adding them to Dylan and Tyler and Filip Hronek, that nucleus is starting to form.
"I mention Tyler and Dylan, they’re still pretty young guys. They got a lot of years ahead of them. They’re the leaders of the team and we just gotta fill in the rest of the roster with players that have impact, and getting those guys takes time."
Who knows, maybe Yzerman found one in Oskar Sundqvist, the big, strong 27-year-old forward he acquired Monday from the Blues in the Nick Leddy trade. (Maybe he found another in 26-year-old defenseman Jake Walman.) Whether it's time to find a new coach, time will tell. Yzerman wouldn't say much when asked about Jeff Blashill on Monday, but the Red Wings' recent struggles and general lack of identity this season have brought Blashill's future into question.
Asked Tuesday if it's fair to question whether Blashill should keep his job, Yzerman said, "We’re in the business of pro sports. We’re very fortunate that we have a strong fanbase that follows the team passionately and I expect them to question all of us, really. I can’t worry about that.
"We sit here and try to assess, just like everybody else, why are we giving up so many goals? Why are we losing? So we’re all going to be questioned and we just keep our heads down, including Jeff Blashill, and keep doing the job to the best of our abilities."
The Wings have 20 games to go this season, starting Tuesday night against the Flyers. Philadelphia just traded franchise icon Claude Giroux after winning one playoff series in Giroux's 10-year run as captain, not that he was to blame. Giroux was the victim of circumstances. The Flyers never had the right pieces in place during his prime. Yzerman and the Red Wings still have time to assemble a team around the 25-year-old Larkin, but time moves quickly in a sport where primes don't last long.
Detroit has one more month to fix this season and then a few more years, perhaps, to build a contender around its captain. There's no panic on the part of The Captain, who has a plan in the face of the pain.
"We’ll see how we finish up, but clearly the biggest thing we need to do is improve as a team defensively. And really, that's my responsibility," Yzerman said. "We have room and roster spots to improve the team this summer and we’ll try do that."