The 3 Things Detroit Red Wings Players lacked this season
The Detroit Red Wings will likely miss the 2023 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. Playing well early in the year had fans thinking of the playoffs. A series of events are likely the reason why the Detroit Red Wings season will end at the end of the year. What caused the downfall of the Red Wings? There are three things wrong with the current roster.
The Detroit Red Wings need to fix this in the off-season
Scoring depth
At the beginning of the year, the Detroit Red Wings had a revamped roster ready to compete. A roster of four capable lines that could compete with anyone. Then injuries happened. Then scoring droughts happened. These two things clearly cost the Red Wings this season. With call-ups to fill those voids, those call-ups were costly as well. The Detroit Red Wings had scoring forwards but not scoring depth. When the injuries piled up, there was no one to fill that offensive void. The scoring was bleak after the top two lines. Detroit still has some promising forwards who can score in the AHL with the Grand Rapids Griffins. How soon they will be up and if they produce once in the NHL are still in question.
Size
The average height and weight for the 2022-23 Detroit Red Wings roster is 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds. Most of the lineup was smaller than that, and it shows, especially on the power play. The only Red Wings to play net-front presence on the power play were Michael Rasmussen and Elmer Soderblom, who were both 6-foot-6. The problem was Rasmussen got hurt halfway through the season, and Soderblom was in Grand Rapids most of the year. The Red Wings need to address the size issue because it could ultimately help the offense, including the power play numbers.
Physicality
The Detroit Red Wings were outplayed physically this year. Of course, there were scrums in which the Red Wings participated. However, the Detroit Red Wings lacked a physical presence big time.
Forward Tyler Bertuzzi, now with the Boston Bruins, was injured most of the year, and when he played, he lacked the tough physical play that made him a force on the ice. Defenseman Moritz Seider played a physical game when he had to. For the most part, the Red Wings got pushed around because of this and did not have a response.
The Wings need a big, physical presence in their lineup to protect their stars and younger players. A player like Minnesota Wild winger Ryan Reaves or someone similar to play a fourth-line, intimidating role. The Detroit Red Wings have many talented young forwards, but they collectively are a small group. Changes need to be made to address these issues in the off-season for the Red Wings to build on the success they had early this season.