Welcome to my eighth regular-season Detroit Red Wings weekly review. The Detroit Red Wings played four games this past week, finishing 2-2.
The Red Wings lost to the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1, then defeated both the Columbus Blue Jackets and Tampa Bay Lightning by scores of 4-2. The Red Wings ended the week with a 5-1 loss against the Florida Panthers.
Positives
The bottom six of the Detroit Red Wings solidified themselves as a legitimate group. They are strong defensively and can produce offensively on a regular basis.
Joe Veleno, Michael Rasmussen, Oskar Sundqvist, and others are playing really well and accounting for wins because of their play. This group comes with energy and determination night after night, never giving up on the puck. The cycle game of this bottom six is strong as well.
Detroit Red Wings Weekly Recap.
The Detroit Red Wings still have some work to do, but their neutral zone play has improved. The Red Wings clog up the middle, and it is not as easy as it has been in years past to skate right up the ice for the opposition.
The Red Wings now have a system in place to eliminate the free skating by the opposing forwards by locking down the neutral zone and cutting down on scoring chances.
The power play was back on point this week, going 3 for 9. Detroit went back to what was making them successful and ran with it.
Pin-point passing and positioning in front of the opposing netminder, creating openings and space for the talent on the ice for the Red Wings really came through this week. The success has raised the power play success rate to 21.9%.
Negatives
The offensive zone was an issue this week for the Detroit Red Wings. Often, the Red Wings would attempt to enter the zone just to have a turnover or enter the zone and the puck was back out again.
Entering the offensive zone can help control not only the puck possession game but the pace of the game as well. The Detroit Red Wings need to work on this in practice because this is a small detail that can lead to much success.
Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic is still not working out in the net. He played this week and the same result keeps happening: too many soft goals, although this week was more of a team issue.
He looks unsure between the pipes and his confidence is still shaken. He is not playing with the same energy he did before. Maybe he is injured, and a trip to the injured list may help him. Getting him away from the game for a bit may do him some good.
The Detroit Red Wings’ defensemen looked a bit lost this week, especially in the game against Florida. Missing assignments in the defensive zone led to open opponents who got great looks at scoring opportunities.
The lack of physical play also hurt them on defense, allowing the opposition more room to skate and create offensive chances.
Weekly record 2-2-0
Season record 13-8-5