The Red Wings took a small step forward in the standings last season, and perhaps a bigger one on the ice. Take it from new goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic whose former team, the first-place Hurricanes, split the season series with the seventh-place Wings. "They gave us fits," he said. "They're definitely a challenge."
Most notably, Detroit tightened up defensively. It went from last in the league in five-on-five goals against to 18th. It made similar gains in terms of scoring chances against. At Jeff Blashill's behest, and ultimately to Steve Yzerman's satisfaction, the Wings played better hockey in their own end. At the other end, they scored the fewest five-on-five goals in the league.
"I thought we made progress last season in understanding the importance of playing a complete game and what that means to winning," Blashill said Monday on the Stoney & Jansen Snow. "When you’re a young player, you're used to producing offense. The challenge for players is to produce offense and do it the right way and the winning way, and to do that you have to check."
In this regard, Blashill said the Wings have a "great example" in the two-time defending champion Lighting who didn't get over the hump until "they decided they wanted to learn and play the right way."
"And I think our group started to take those steps last year," Blashill said. "Now the next step you take from there is continuing to be a team that’s hard to play against, but learning to produce a little bit more offense. As you do that, you start to narrow that gap between goals for and goals against.
"We were in a lot of tight games last year. Learning how to win those games is really important for our guys. Hopefully we can take a bunch of those steps this season with as few steps backward as possible."
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22 of Detroit's 56 games last season were decided by one goal. They only won five of them -- the league's lowest winning percentage (.227) in such games -- because they couldn't score timely goals. Reversing that trend will be one of their most important tests in 2021-22.
You don’t do these things in giant leaps," Blashill said. "You do them step by step, and sometimes it takes more time than any of us want. But that’s the reality if you do it right. I think if you try to cheat the process and accelerate it, you get yourself in trouble as an organization. And I know Steve will not let that happen. He wants to do it methodically, he wants to do it the right way."
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For all their youth, the Wings were actually one of the oldest teams in the NHL last season by average age. That will likely change this season. 20-year-old Moritz Seider is expected to make the team out of camp, and 19-year-old Lucas Raymond and 21-year-old Jonatan Berggren will challenge for spots as well. Blashill pointed to the latter two when asked about players he's most excited to see hit the ice in a few weeks in Traverse City.
"I just haven’t seen those guys play live. Watching on tape is one thing, it gives you a feel for things, but not like live in a North American setting where the ice sheet is different and the game’s a little bit different. And I would probably say the same with (free agent signing) Pius Suter. I’ve seen him play live against us, but let’s see him when he’s in our setting and how he does.
"But certainly Berggren and Raymond are two guys that I want to see and see where they’re at. It’ll be fun, I’ll get a chance to get an early peek at them in the prospects tournament (Sept. 16-20). That’s three games you get a chance to see them against more their age group and then we’ll roll into our camp (Sept. 22)."
Berggren, a second-round pick in 2018, shined last season in the Swedish Hockey League with 45 points in 49 games. Raymond, the fourth overall pick in 2020, produced 18 points in 34 games in the same league before his season was cut short by an arm injury. Suter, a 25-year-old center, scored 27 points in 55 games while playing second-line minutes for the Blackhawks.
Other highlights from Blashill's interview on 97.1 The Ticket:
On the goal-scoring ceiling for Jakub Vrana: "He’s got an elite shot. An elite, elite shot. Jakub is a little bit like we talked earlier. When offensive players come in, they all scored lots of points in junior or wherever they got drafted from. The challenge is to learn to do it while playing a complete game. We’re not going to sacrifice. We’re going to make sure that he plays a complete game, and can he produce in the 30's? That’s a lot of goals in the NHL. Can he do that? He’s got the ability to do that, for sure. So we’ll see, he’s definitely got that high-end ability."
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On Seider being mentioned as trade bait for Jack Eichel: "I would say this: if ultimately Mo Seider becomes an elite player and he’s a right-shot 6’4 defenseman that does it on both sides of the puck, you would never, ever want to trade that player away -- if that’s what he becomes. The thing about potential is, potential needs to become reality … He’s going to have to come in, earn his spot and then learn by fire a little bit. But he’s got great moxie, great confidence and hockey smarts. That’s what the best players have. He’s got those things, so I think he’s going to be a good package. How good, we’ll see."
On Dylan Larkin's rehab from his neck injury: "His offseason has been a lot about recovering from his injury and going through the rehab process. I think he’s in a good spot. I believe he’ll be ready when the puck drops on the season. I think he’ll be ready for training camp but if we have to adjust that a few days, that’s not a big deal. We gotta make sure he’s ready come the beginning of October."