So given the questions surrounding the Wings, do they need to make a shakeup before playoff time comes around? Darren Dreger of TSN gives his thoughts on the situation at hand…
At the moment, Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland isn’t looking to shake things up. But if his team doesn’t improve defensively over the next two weeks, Holland says he may have to do something.
Holland doesn’t like the way his team has played the past six weeks, even though Detroit sits second in the Western Conference standings behind Vancouver and third overall.
The Red Wings GM says Detroit is giving up too many goals. Calgary, Columbus, Colorado and Edmonton are the only teams in the West to have given up more goals this season than Detroit.
Holland added he will monitor the play of his team and weigh that against who’s available on the trade market before making a decision in a couple of weeks.
Given the Wings’ play over the weekend it would seem as though right now the defense and goaltending is somewhat under control given the stellar play of Jimmy Howard, the defense and the fact that they will be getting Brad Stuart back later in the week. Every good team though should be looking for ways to get better and that’s exactly what Ken Holland is going to do.
Once the team is completely healthy, the Wings will be the most complete team in the Western Conference. Even more so then conference leader Vancouver. Detroit has good young goaltending in Jimmy Howard and reliable backup goaltending in Chris Osgood. Yes I still think that Chris Osgood can be reliable in the playoffs. They have a solid defense with Norris Trophy candidate Nick Lidstrom and a solid offense with Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Franzen, etc. Not to mention they are a team that has been there and done that which can be the most important factor when comes down to a seven game series.
The most important thing that must happen in the coming weeks and Dreger touches on it is evaluation. Holland needs to evaluate the rehabilitation of Osgood and monitor the way the defense is playing down the stretch.
Source: TSN.ca
