Detroit won the Stanley Cup in 2007-08 thanks to a spectacular puck-possession game and airtight defense. While this season’s win total is right in line with last year’s, those lofty numbers could be misleading. The Wings are struggling keeping the puck out of their own net, and having defensive issues this time of year doesn’t bode well for postseason success.
Detroit Allowing More Goals than Last Season
The Wings have lost four of their last five and are fresh off a 5-4 home defeat at the hands of the St. Louis Blues. Allowing five goals in a game is nothing new to the Red Wings. With five games left on the slate, the Wings have already surrendered five or more goals 14 times this season. That’s the same number of times the lowly Atlanta Thrashers have allowed five or more goals. To put that number in further perspective, last season, the Wings yielded five or more goals only seven times.
In 2007-08, the Red Wings gave up the fewest goals in the league, allowing a mere 184 for an average of 2.24 per contest. This season, the Detroit defense has been nowhere near as stingy, already surrendering 230 goals through 77 games for an average of 2.99 per outing. Detroit has allowed the most goals in the entire Central Division. In fact, only 10 teams have allowed more goals than the Red Wings.
Osgood Struggling in Net
Mediocre goaltending is responsible in large part for the sharp increase in goals against. Veteran Chris Osgood has been brutal, posting a 3.18 goals-against average and a pitiful .884 save percentage. Ty Conklin has all but usurped the starting job, posting a respectable .910 save percentage in his 39 appearances. Unfortunately, Conklin isn’t exactly a proven playoff performer, owning a grand total of six minutes experience in the postseason.
The Red Wings are reluctant to give up on Osgood, whose 387 career victories rank him 11th in NHL history. He’s won two Stanley Cups as a starter and another as a backup, so the belief is he’ll elevate his game come playoff time.
If not, Conklin will have to step up the same way Osgood did last year when he took over for the imploding Dominik Hasek during Detroit's first-round match with Nashville. Then again, expecting another miracle like that could be too much to ask, even in Hockey Town.
