Red Wings Lose Six Straight Games to Open Season for the First Time in Franchise History

[BTP]

I feel no sympathy. Fans had 25 years of pure fun.

 

[Master P]

Lets make it seven tomorrow.

 

[Rebels57]

This start has gone perfect if youre a Red Wings fan that wants to see them turn into a contender again.

 

[winnipegger]

Red wing fans should be overjoyed. Toronto had one awful year and that's all it took.

 

[Satire]

Glad to see the wings are adopting the tank approach that has worked out really well for the Oilers, Arizona, and Buffalo...

Wait...

Wait?

 

[LarKing]

Red wing fans should be overjoyed. Toronto had one awful year and that's all it took.

They didn’t get Reilly, Nylander, and Marner from their draft picks during great years.

 

[LarKing]

Glad to see the wings are adopting the tank approach that has worked out really well for the Oilers, Arizona, and Buffalo...

Wait...

Wait?

Yes it isn’t a 100% strategy but Chicago, Pittsburgh, LA, etc. all had superstars from top 5 picks. We have Zadina in the Wings, but could still use a few more.

 

[Liminality]

They didn’t get Reilly, Nylander, and Marner from their draft picks during great years.

Definitely.
We had to endure some rough years in recent memory to be able to draft those guys. We had a good string of draft years in the top 5-10 though.

Rielly 2012 #5
Gauthier 2013 #21 (okay not so much)
Nylander 2014 #8
Marner 2015 #4
Matthews 2016 #1

Those 5 years are pretty much the Leafs building blocks. Definitely didn't suck just 1 year and bam all good.

 

[LarKing]

Definitely.
We had to endure some rough years in recent memory to be able to draft those guys. We had a good string of draft years in the top 5-10 though.

Rielly 2012 #5
Gauthier 2013 #21 (okay not so much)
Nylander 2014 #8
Marner 2015 #4
Matthews 2016 #1

Those 5 years are pretty much the Leafs building blocks. Definitely didn't suck just 1 year and bam all good.

Yeah exactly. They might not have been trying to rebuild for more than that year, but their seasons before that let them set up their core in the minors.

We’re hoping we have that with Larkin, Mantha, and Zadina. Then top 5 picks this year and likely next to round it out.

 

[TBanff]

Every franchise has their ups and downs. Detroit was competitive for decade after decade to the degree that few sports teams in history could match. It’s impossible not to expect a decline at some point.

 

[Datsyukian Deke]

Every franchise has their ups and downs. Detroit was competitive for decade after decade to the degree that few sports teams in history could match. It’s impossible not to expect a decline at some point.

Indeed. The thing that is most annoying, is that we all knew this rebuild should have been taking place in 2014 or 2015, everyone that is except Ken Holland who was holding on to a meaningless playoff streak that kept going nowhere.

 

[tucker3434]

Impressive that they managed to hold on this long. They’ve been a good team for pretty much my whole life. They just kept cycling in 7th round superstars. But I guess that can’t last forever, especially with how good drafting is these days.

 

[Pens x]

Why does Holland still have a job?

 

[Cursed Lemon]

Why does Holland still have a job?

Because Mike Illitch was incapacitated for years and because Chris Illitch doesn't seem to give a shit.

 

[DFC]

Because Mike Illitch was incapacitated for years and because Chris Illitch doesn't seem to give a ****.

Mike Illitch was always loyal to a fault though, so I don't think it would be different even if he were still at the helm.

 

[AD1066]

Seven. Ah-Ah-Ah.

My concern as that this draft has some great forwards -- Hughes, Kakko, Cozens, Dach -- but the Wings' most pressing organizational need is defense. We could use more forward talent as well, in a division with plenty of elite forwards, etc, but defensemen generally take longer to develop and each year we pass on D, my fear is that we're kicking the can further down the road.

In a perfect world a rebuilding organization would add high-potential defensemen early on in the rebuild, and then 2-3 years later add forwards (including the coveted #1C) so that everyone is hopefully ready to make an impact at the same time. Instead we've found ourselves with an abundance of wingers, who probably matter least in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Tomas W]

Seven. Ah-Ah-Ah.

View attachment 148057

My concern as that this draft has some great forwards -- Hughes, Kakko, Cozens, Dach -- but the Wings' most pressing organizational need is defense. We could use more forward talent as well, in a division with plenty of elite forwards, etc, but defensemen generally take longer to develop and each year we pass on D, my fear is that we're kicking the can further down the road.

In a perfect world a rebuilding organization would add high-potential defensemen early on in the rebuild, and then 2-3 years later add forwards (including the coveted #1C) so that everyone is hopefully ready to make an impact at the same time. Instead we've found ourselves with an abundance of wingers, who probably matter least in the grand scheme of things.

Draft BPA, trade one of the better young guys in the forward group for either a (very) good D prospect or a good established D (preferably not too old).

 

[Cursed Lemon]

Mike Illitch was always loyal to a fault though, so I don't think it would be different even if he were still at the helm.

Mike Illitch created a winning franchise. I guess we'll never know what he would've done at this juncture, but I don't think "ignore horrible decisions and settle on being a basement team" would be it.

 

[DFC]

Mike Illitch created a winning franchise. I guess we'll never know what he would've done at this juncture, but I don't think "ignore horrible decisions and settle on being a basement team" would be it.

Yeah, but at the same time, Illitch was loyal to so, so, so many guys, including Holland, when Yzerman started knocking on the door of a GM job. But I mean, that franchise has a loooong history of promoting from within, and guys almost never, if ever, move on on bad terms. I mean, after Scotty Bowman, I think Dave Lewis is the only coach they ever actually fired. Part of that is because Holland is also loyal to a fault, but it seems like that's true throughout the entire organization.

 

[Cursed Lemon]

Yeah, but at the same time, Illitch was loyal to so, so, so many guys, including Holland, when Yzerman started knocking on the door of a GM job. But I mean, that franchise has a loooong history of promoting from within, and guys almost never, if ever, move on on bad terms. I mean, after Scotty Bowman, I think Dave Lewis is the only coach they ever actually fired. Part of that is because Holland is also loyal to a fault, but it seems like that's true throughout the entire organization.

That was in 2010 when the team was still good enough to make a deep playoff run. That's not about loyalty, that's about optics - you don't just yank the rug out from under someone when by all accounts they're succeeding, no one will want to work for you after that.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

they had a historic, unreal run but as George Harrison once said: All Things Must Pass

they'll stink for a couple more years, hire Yzerman back as GM and rebuild properly

 

[DeYarmond Edison]

I love it. We should've started tanking 6+ years ago.

This is the most I've been invested in this team in years.

 

[MtlBoxFan]

Worst lineup in franchise history. Functions as designed.

 

[newfy]

honestly for me(and I suspect a bunch of other people born in the late 80s-early 90s or so) it's hurt for more than half a decade at this point

this is actually a refreshing change of pace,the Wings haven't been good enough to win anything in a long time now but at least now they're finally bad enough to have a real chance at some elite talent

i'll take bottoming out over purgatory any day

Yep. Watching Larkin, Bertuzzi, Cholowski, Hronek and Rasmussen amonga few other young guys on the everyday rostermakes it more exciting than the last couple seasons. Watching Zetterberg play 24 mins a night last year while the team was going nowhere was getting old. Now its young guys looking mostly competitive against NHL talent, theyve had a couple blowout losses but theyve also played some of the top teams in the league close (Tampa, Toronto) with the young guys looking like the wings best players in those games.

They have a good base of young players already for having not bottomed out. This year is likely a top 3 pick and adding an elite talent, and I would assume the same thing happens next year. Couple that with an already really good prospect pool and the wings arent in as bad of shape as some are making them out to be. Its going to be a long couple years but ever since they missed the playoffs Holland has actually made good rebuild moves

 

[TheOtherOne]

Trade 1OA 2019 for Dahlin straight up