Season Review: Detroit Red Wings

(Sorry, been lax with the whole "Random Thoughts" posts, haven't gotten to watch nearly the amount of hockey as we did during the quarterfinals.)

Well, mow we're gearing toward the conference finals of the playoffs, we will be reviewing the seasons of teams as they're eliminated from the playoffs. Obviously, the last team reviewed will be the one that wins the Cup.

Now the first team to be eliminated from the Western Conference Semifinals: The Detroit Red Wings.

Season expectations: While hockey fans and experts expected the Red Wings to be competitive, most knew there would be a slight step back; even Mike Babcock used to the term "rebuilding" when describing what the team's season would be like. Gone were goal scorers such as Mikael Samuelsson and Jiri Hudler and in came players like Todd Bertuzzi and Jason Williams. Andreas Lilja was going to start the season in the infirmary, giving Jonathan Ericsson the opportunity to get his feet wet in an NHL gig. Ty Conklin didn't return and with no other options in goal aside from Chris Osgood, the team promoted Jimmy Howard up from the minors to platoon with Osgood in hopes of giving Detroit their first homegrown goaltender since... well, Osgood. Though the scoring wasn't predicted to be as abundant, the Wings were still regarded as one of the top teams in the league going into the season.

My prediction: I predicted that the Red Wings would finish second in the Central Division and fourth overall in the Western Conference.

The truth: The Wings finished second in the division and fifth overall in the conference (pretty damn close.) They made it to the Western Conference Semifinals, where they were eliminated by the San Jose Sharks in five games.

What went right?: Howard took huge steps and ultimately the starting job over as he managed to carve out a 37-15-10 record with a .924 save percentage. The team's top defenders, Niklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski, were their usual talented selves, posting 49 and 42 points respectively to go along with +22 and +23 ratings, respectively. Behind the bench, Mike Babcock did what he could to keep a team that saw Bertuzzi and Brad Stuart as the only players to dress in 82 games competitive while Ken Holland made an intriguing waiver wire pickup with Drew Miller, giving the team a sound defensive forward to fortify their fourth line. Pavel Datsyuk and Bertuzzi managed to score some timely goals for the Wings while Valtteri Filppula was on pace to have a career season if it weren't for all the pesky injuries. What happened to work best for the Wings was the fact that they demonstrated the perseverance that makes them legendary, going from being 10th overall in the conference in January to fifth overall by April.

What went wrong?: Simply stated, after three straight postseasons of reaching the Western Conference Finals or better, the team ran out of gas after dealing with a season where injuries and a lack of depth (in comparison to those previous seasons) forced them to be behind the ball many a times. The team had to dig down deep to make it to the playoffs and had to do the same again to eliminate the Coyotes from the playoffs in seven games. By the time they reached a healthy and effective San Jose squad, the team had overexerted themselves and San Jose took full advantage of it.

So what's next?: When most teams say it's a rebuild season, that usually means a Top-Five draft pick. In the Red Wings' case, it means making the 5th seed of the playoffs. They might be out for this season, but the team's still got it. Most of the key players are locked up for next season, leaving Lidstrom and Tomas Holmstrom as two of the more key components that need to be retained if they don't opt for retirement. Hudler will also be returning next season and will provide the Wings with some of that scoring they were missing during this season. With a longer than expected summer, the team can go to their respective homes, get some good rest and recovery time in with their families, and return to displaying the type of dominance they're known for during the 2010-11 season.

Oh and if the team happens to sign Zenon Konopka during the off-season to help them with a consummate fourth-line center (read: a guy who wins fights and faceoffs) then this blogger's getting a Wings tattoo. Honest.