I don’t know what to say and I’m not sure how to feel. I do know that these feelings are new to me – this heartache and disappointment, game after game. The frustrating mistakes that cause not only bad things on the ice, but such an emotional roller-coaster that you can’t help but curse at the TV until either you or it explodes. We have not met our own expectations and that bar has been set pretty high over the last 20 years. Red Wings have been synonymous with winning for a long time now. The team, which all Wings fans have a deep vested interest, are providing more stress this year than my job, girlfriend, and the 6:45 am NYC gridlock traffic on the bridge combined.
We lost again last night, this time to the damned Phoenix Coyotes. The Coyotes took this game away from us even while playing Chad Johnson, a goalie with about nine games played in NHL so far over the last 4 years.
Good job team.
Once again the team had a huge meltdown in the second period, and we gave up three goals while being out-shot 20 to 6. Just like the games against the Wild on March 20th and February 17th, the games against Blue Jackets on March 10th and March 9th, and the game against the Blues on February 13th we had a second period collapse. While I am sure it is a slim trend that correlates into nothingness, it’s at least worth noting. Trend or not, in these games the Wings have been outscored in the 2nd period, 15 to 4. Not good.
Truth be told though, when looking at the season so far, overall anyway, we have been fairly consistent in giving up goals during each period. 30 goals in the first period, 33 goals in the second period, and 30 goals against in the third period. In comparison the Pittsburgh Penguins have given up 20 more goals in the second period than in the first and third period – clearly they’ve mastered the opening and end game.
So is our second period the issue? In most of our loses it has been and especially against the Blue Jackets as they have outscored us in the second period 7-3 (two goals coming in our first game). Winning those easy “gimme” points against Blue Jackets would have secured us a spot in the playoffs right now, but being in the Central division there are no more “gimme” points anymore, right?
Look, as a fan and a human being, I can’t help but find patterns in these numbers and statistics. What is horrifying though is how bad Detroit has been at scoring goals this year and it really shows in our ability to come from behind.
Detroit also has a 26th league “best” record when scoring first with only 12 wins and a .571 winning percentage right now to go with an almost league lowest .545 winning percentage leading after first. We are a rock-star team leading after second period, if we manage to get a lead, as we have 13 wins and a .867 winning percentage. What is really ugly here is when we trail. Trailing after 1st period we have a .231 winning percentage (3 wins and 8 loses) and trailing after 2nd period we have .133 winning percentage (2 wins and 10 loses). Ouch.
What does it all mean and how do we fix this? All this data means is that Detroit is really playing poorly, or at least sub-standard, and if you watched the games you will no doubt agree. How do we explain this and fix it?
I can explain it with few interesting points. Henrik Zetterberg is shooting a career low 6.6 %, and while we would really love for him to be at about 10 %, he has settled into a more realistic 8% over the past three years. What is even more alarming here is that Johan Franzen is shooting at 8.6 % and this is way below his career average of about 12%. In fact it is the lowest shooting percentage since 06-07 season.
Another nail in this coffin is that besides those two having below standard seasons as far as goals are concerned, we also find ourselves without any HOT player to balance this equation out. In comparison the Anaheim Ducks have not only star players shooting at their average shooting percentage or above, but they also have five players who are scoring at an unrealistic pace of over 18%.
This season has been nothing but a disappointment so far, but not as grim as most fans would have us believe. Our team is under-performing right now and this means that if we do make the playoffs ‘anything goes’. Will the Red Wings make the playoffs? At this point it is ‘clinch your buttocks and buy some octopi’ time, because we will need all the help we can get to put the puck in the net.
If you are an optimist, remember the LA Kings last year had the exact same problem. Issue scoring goals and look how horrible that turned out for them!
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