Find the back of the net 🥅

Dave Bartkowiak Jr., Digital Managing Editor

Published: October 22, 2021 at 6:13 PM

Tags: RW Newsletter, Newsletter, DRW Newsletter

The Red Wings were shut out Thursday night in a game that was much closer than the score suggests.

Unable to finish

I really hope we’re not in for another season of devastating team scoring droughts. That buried the Red Wings last season. Steve Yzerman worked to address this issue at the trade deadline and in the offseason, acquiring Jakub Vrana, Pius Suter and Nick Leddy, and then bringing up 19-year-old Lucas Raymond.

Unfortunately, they’re not starting the season with Vrana due to injury. We knew this could be a blow to the team’s offensive production. But Tyler Bertuzzi’s 50% shooting percentage (unsustainable) distracted us in the first few games. And Raymond has kept us entertained with his goal and 2 assists.

Meanwhile, Pius Suter is averaging just less than 16 minutes of ice time each night and is pointless through four games. He has 12 shots on goal so far, the most of any Red Wing. Hopefully he can start finding the back of the net. I have the full Red Wings player points stats toward the end of this newsletter for your review.

My point is they lost Thursday night to a “meh” Calgary Flames team because they could not finish against Jakob Markstrom. He made 33 saves for the shutout, and I am not saying he didn’t earn it, but after reviewing the game I don’t think we saw enough offensive threat from the Red Wings, and there was no strong finishing when the opportunities did arise.

The Red Wings need more 5-on-5 scoring chances. I talked about the depth we saw against Columbus. We know it’s there, but if they can’t finish with more goals -- Michael Rasmussen, for instance -- it’s going to be rough. Filip Zadina, by the way, has not scored at even strength. He just has the power play goal -- it was a nice one, for sure.

And that brings me to my next point: Detroit went scoreless on the power play yet again -- 0 for 3 this time. That puts them at 2 for 14 (14.29 PP%) through four games. That will not be good enough if they can’t generate more even strength goals. The power play was such a disgrace last season. It must improve this year. There is no excuse (of course, Vrana would help). Alex Tanguay was hired to do this, so let’s please see a competent man advantage.

One more thing that is kind of upsetting: A Red Wings defenseman is yet to score a goal. We know that’s not going to cut in the NHL today. Defensemen need to score. Let’s get Moritz Seider on the board.

Rant over

It is early. It’s only four games. I am merely pointing out some minor trends here that we’d hate to see snowball into another train wreck.

I think we all see the potential for this team to take a big step this year. There will be some growing pains still, sure, but we cannot accept anything like the past couple of seasons. This team needs to keep their aggressive attitude and point it toward the other team’s net more often. Keep moving forward.

Montreal next -- no Bertuzzi

Bertuzzi leads the team with 6 points (5G, 1A). It would be ideal to have him with the team in Montreal on Saturday night, but he won’t be there due to his unvaccinated status. He can’t go to Canada.

This is a huge bummer, obviously. Bertuzzi is such a very important part of this team. I’m not saying he’ll keep up his wicked scoring pace, but we know he helps generate offense in more ways than scoring. He’s all over the place on the ice, going in the corners, going to the front of the net, etc. He is part of this team’s identity out there. He can help set a tone.

After this Montreal meeting, there are eight more games in Canada for the Red Wings. They go to Toronto next Saturday, Oct. 30.