Pair of NHL analysts blast Red Wings' early season struggles as "just not good enough"
The Red Wings are off to a disappointing beginning, and The Athletic has gotten brutally honest about what they've seen and the total team outlook.
The Detroit Red Wings got the massive monkey off their backs on Thursday at Little Caesars Arena, stealing two points from the New York Islanders by scoring twice in the final five minutes of regulation for a much-needed 2-1 win.
But the team appears to have taken a step backward from last season, which saw them play an exciting, high-offense style of hockey and resulted in multiple winning streaks.
The Red Wings are one of the lowest-ranked NHL teams in generating 5-on-5 offense, their penalty killing has been very subpar, and the defense has been porous.
Additionally, they're not getting the kind of contributions they need from players like Vladimir Tarasenko, J.T. Compher, and Michael Rasmussen among others.
Furthermore, there has been rampant speculation as to the job security of head coach Derek Lalonde, who has missed the postseason in each of his first two years on the job in Detroit.
The latest NHL Power Ranking list from The Athletic was released by analysts Dom Luszczyszyn and Sean Gentille, and their their assessment of the Red Wings isn't a kind one.
They rank the Red Wings 21st of the 32 NHL teams:
The Model viewed them as an 81-point team and at 8-9-2 they are pretty much exactly what they were expected to be.
They concluded by voicing what they believe is a hard pill for fans to swallow - they're just not good enough right now.
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