Playoff Hopes Crashing, Detroit Red Wings Turn On Each Other

Getty Images Detroit Red Wings General Manager Steve Yzerman

Another blowout loss, and the Detroit Red Wings are on the verge of a major late-season collapse. To make matters worse, the Wings are now turning on one another. At today’s practice, the frustrations of a six-game losing streak and another year of not making the playoffs clearly boiled over. Ben Chiarot and Lucas Raymond got into a scuffle, which local TV station WXYZ captured on video. The veteran defenseman, Chariot, and the young left winger, Raymond, had to be pulled apart.

Blame Rests Mostly With Steve Yzerman

The Red Wings haven’t been to the playoffs since the 2016 season. Sadly, Year 5 into Steve Yzerman’s ‘Yzerplan’ and the odds suggest the Wings won’t make it to the playoffs this year, either.

The blame for this year’s collapse by the Detroit Red Wings rests mostly on the shoulders of General Manager Steve Yzerman. There are others at fault, to be sure, but no one is more responsible for yet another annual Red Wings miss than “Stevie Y.” As Heavy documented, with the playoffs finally within reach this year, Steve Yzerman chose instead to go AWOL: “Fans were hopeful of a blockbuster trade. But instead of taking a shot at the trade deadline, Yzerman shocked Red Wings fans by, essentially, dumping the puck.”

Yzerman’s response: “Expressing confidence in the club’s current roster.”

Six games ago, the Detroit Red Wings were tied with Tampa for the first playoff spot in the East. Now, after a blowout loss to the Buffalo Sabres, the Wings are in the third spot, behind Tampa and the New York Islanders. And are fighting one another rather than leaving it all on the ice during a game. With no reinforcements coming, the Wings may have already given up.

Another Game, Another Blowout Loss

Just before the latest blowout loss, Red Wings Coach Derek Lalonde described the game not as a “must win” but a “must play well.” The Wings did neither. Worse, the offense and defense now appear to be at odds — an especially bad sign this late into the season.

The team has been outscored 32-11 during this six-game stretch of defeats. As the NHL’s Nick Cotsonika wrote, “since Feb. 29, the Red Wings are 31st in goals per game (1.83), 32nd in goals-against per game (5.33), 19th on the power play (17.7 percent) and tied with the Minnesota Wild for 23rd on the penalty kill (72.7 percent). They’re 26th in 5-on-5 shot attempts percentage (45.8 percent) and 32nd in combined 5-on-5 shooting and save percentage (90.9 percent).” That’s not a  NHL playoff team, despite Yzerman’s insistence otherwise.

Compounding matters, captain Dylan Larkin’s time on the injured list may get extended. As Wings coach Lalonde told the Hockey News, “the original prognosis was approximately two weeks. I would not expect him this weekend. We’ll see how he handles maybe getting on the ice this weekend, and hopefully we get back from Pittsburgh Monday, we’re hoping he’ll be maybe in the day-to-day range. That could change. We’ll see how he feels tomorrow, but I wouldn’t expect him on the weekend.”