Here we will take a look at how the Detroit Red Wings matchup against their divisional foes. They went big this offseason. They were spending serious cap space on free agents bringing in the likes of J.T. Compher, Shayne Gostisbehere, James Reimer, Alex Lyon, and Daniel Sprong, among others. And of course trading for two-time 41-goal scorer Alex DeBrincat. Conversely, it blocked the pathway for some prospects who may have been considered NHL-ready. At the very least, prospects that seemed like they were heading for the opening night roster. This was done to make training camp and the final roster more competitive, but regardless that isn’t what a rebuilding team does.
The Matchup Between Detroit Red Wings vs. Rest of the Atlantic Division
After missing the playoffs for seven years it finally seems to be time. It will be interesting to see how the Detroit Red Wings matchup within the division and get back into the postseason. Moreover, this will not be an easy task since the Atlantic is one of the hardest divisions in the NHL currently. With teams like the Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Florida Panthers who will for sure be fighting for the top spot. The Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres all have good reason to be placed ahead of Detroit in predicted standings. Also, the Ottawa Senators are considered further ahead in their rebuild, and the Montreal Canadiens still have a tough team.
What does that mean for the Detroit Red Wings? It means as much as all 82 games of the season matter and the inter-division games are going to be far more crucial to making the playoffs. Going from the most likely divisional winners to the team who may have the best chance to win the lottery. Let’s take a look at Detroit’s divisional rivals and the plan to get the Red Wings the best chance to end their franchising-tying playoff drought.
Top of the Class the Toronto Maple Leafs
Starting with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Last season they finished with a 50-21-11 record which was good enough for second in the Atlantic. Entering into the final season of William Nylander’s contract, which may price him out of Toronto, it is very important to this team to go on a deep playoff run. With loads of highly skilled players even outside of the main four like ex-Red Wing Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, upfront, John Klingberg, Morgan Rielly, on the back end, and led by Ilya Samsonov manning the crease. They have a team that can certainly win a lot of hockey games. Everyone has seen them dominate in the regular season before, so it will be no surprise if they do it again this year.
Another Top Tier Adversary the Tampa Bay Lightning
Tampa Bay will also be one of the Red Wings division’s toughest opponents as seen finishing last season with 46 wins and 98 points. They lost Pat Maroon, Corey Perry, and long-time Lightning Alex Killorn, among others in the offseason. However, they did bring in some depth help, the biggest additions being Conor Sheary and Luke Glendening. Right now they are without their starting goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy for a couple of months to open the season. This would be the time to squeeze points out of them like they did in the home opener. Once Vasilevskiy comes back it will be hard to steal a point or two from them. Not including their starting goaltender, they have they constant star presence like Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, and Victor Hedman who can more than get the job done for this team.
For Detroit, the goal should be to keep these games as tight as possible. They can execute this by making sure the defence is playing their position right and not giving away easy chances. This will clean up their act for when they play other teams and hopefully steal a couple of games in the process. They don’t need to kick them out of the top spots, but taking a couple of points along the way won’t hurt either.
The Middle of the Pack
The Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, and Florida Panthers are the teams that Detroit should be preparing for the most. Without a doubt at least two, if not three of these teams will be in the race with Detroit for a playoff spot.
The Boston Bruins
The Bruins had a record-setting season last year with 65 wins and 135 points. However, they did lose in the first round to Florida and then lost more than a handful of key players. The biggest being their captain, Patrice Bergeron who retired, Nick Foligno, Taylor Hall, the aforementioned, Bertuzzi, and more. This is still a team that will do well as they have all the makeup of a good team; solid goaltending, good defence, and offence. They just aren’t the goliaths that they used to be and teams like Detroit, Buffalo, and Florida, who are making a playoff push, could see them on the outside looking in.
Buffalo Sabres
As for Buffalo, everyone has them pegged as it being their year. They only missed the playoffs by one point behind the Panthers last season with 42 wins and 91 points. Tage Thompson had a huge breakout season last year along with Dylan Cozens and Casey Mittelstadt down the middle. They have three former first-overall picks on their defence with Owen Power (2021), Rasmus Dahlin (2018), and Erik Johnson (2006). Goaltending is their only potentially weak spot with Devon Levi supposed to be their go-to guy, but he is pretty unproven. He could faulter and they may need to trade for another goalie to man the crease. However, Buffalo is considered to be farther along in their rebuild than Detroit and more ready to make the jump to the postseason.
Florida Panthers
The other team in the Atlantic that would seem to give the Red Wings some grief is the Florida Panthers. They snuck into the playoffs recording 92 points and finishing in the 2nd wild card spot before going to the Stanley Cup final to lose to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games. They have so far started 1-2, but three games are far from a season. Also, their amazing goaltending along with solid defence and rock-solid offensive stars like Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk to name a few means they can stifle any offence and beat teams in their defensive zone.
These teams are absolute must-win games. Most likely the Red Wings will be in a race with them to get the last couple of playoff spots. This means they are even more important than Detroit’s other division rivals like Tampa Bay and Toronto. Detroit has more than enough depth and proven NHLers that will get them the wins as long as they execute their game plan and don’t fall apart. Quite simply they aren’t going to out-skill their competition into a playoff spot right now. Buffalo is still a young team and Boston may be past their prime, but they are still really good hockey teams. Also, Florida is not a team to mess around with either.
The Bottom Feeders: Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens
Lastly, are the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators. Almost all analysts and hockey personalities have the Senators finishing above Detroit in the standings. It’s fair to say that, especially after losing DeBrincat and Cam Talbot in the offseason and adding Vladimir Tarasenko, Joonas Korpisalo, and Dominik Kubalik to their roster. Not to mention the roster already included Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk, Claude Giroux upfront, and defencemen like Jakob Chychrun, Jake Sanderson, and Thomas Chabot on the back end. Additionally, Joonas Korpisalo can steal games when he gets hot. Recording 39 wins and 86 points, the Senators were the team that put the dagger into the Red Wings last season.
Montreal recorded 31 wins and 68 points last season, which to put that into perspective only four other teams finished worse than the Canadiens. Needless to say, Montreal has a better chance of getting the first-overall pick in 2024 than reaching the first round. That being said they shouldn’t be taken lightly, they were in the Stanley Cup finals only two years ago. While much of that group has moved on, the core group of Cole Caufield, Josh Anderson, their captain Nick Suzuki, and Brendan Gallagher are still there. They did lose Jonathan Drouin and Joel Edmundson in the offseason along with Carey Price who retired, but brought in Alex Newhook who is closer in age to their main group. They also normally have Kirby Dach who will be out for the remainder of the season with an ACL and MCL injury.
So How Do the Detroit Red Wings Really Matchup
Making sure the Detroit Red Wings are ready for these divisional matchups is key. It won’t be as much of a battle as when they face off against Florida, Buffalo, or Boston. In contrast, they must be ready and make sure they walk away with the two points where expected. Right now they are off to a good start by keeping the game tight. Ultimately falling to a strong New Jersey Devils team in the season-opening game (3-4). Next, they managed wins against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the home opener (6-4) and the Columbus Blue Jackets (4-0). Moving forward, they will need to clean up their defence and Ville Husso needs to get stronger in net, but it’s only three games which is a small sample size for anyone to analyze.
Main photo: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
