All is Not Bad for the Red Wings.

Dear fellow fans of the Detroit Red Wings: remain calm, this team is not that bad.

The team is young, inconsistent and depleted by injuries, but they are still clinging on to seventh place in the Western Conference playoff race.  Granted the race is very close and the team may actually miss the playoffs for the first time in 21 years.  But that does not mean, the Wings needs to fire head coach Mike Babcock or general manager Ken Holland or dismantle the entire team entirely.

Being a die hard fan, I've read a lot of news columns, blogs and reader posts regarding the team this season and I've come to the realize that a lot of Red Wing fans may be crazy and unreasonable.

Coming into this season, it was pretty much believed that this could be a rough season for the Red Wings.  Hall of Fame defenseman and captain Nicklas Lidstrom retired.  That alone was a major cause for alarm.  Lidstrom never missed the playoffs during his entire 20 year career.  Another solid defenseman, Brad Stuart, left via free agency to return home to San Jose.  Then power play specialist and general goalie nuisance Tomas Holmstrom also decided to retire.  The Wings attempted to land top free agents Zach Parise (forward) and Ryan Suter (defense).  The Minnesota Wild was able to provide the lucrative contracts to both of them.  Pretty much forcing the Red Wings to go into a youth movement.

The lockout shortened season hasn't helped matters either.  The young team missed out on the much needed training camp.  Plus in a 48-game season, every game seems to have a playoff type atmosphere, since a single point could be the difference between a playoff team and a team that will be spending the playoffs on the gold course.

This season has given the Red Wings a good chance to look at what they have in their system and after watching almost every game (thank you NHL Center Ice package and my wife for purchasing it), I must say, I'm pretty happy with the direction the team is going.  A lot of fans have screamed at the management about not making any moves at the trade deadline, but the Wings would've had to give up a lot of future talent for rental players (Jerome Iginla, Jaromir Jagr) or very expensive players (Jay Bouwmeister, Jason Pominville).  None of those players would have pushed the Red Wings into an instant Stanley Cup favorite.   I was actually extremely happy Holland didn't make any knee-jerk reaction moves and lose a future star, much like what the Washington Capitals did (Filip Forsburg for Martin Erat!!!).

Given the injuries the Red Wings have suffered this season, it is truly amazing that they are competitive at all. Center Darren Helm, widely believed to be the best third line center in the game, has played in one game due to a back injury.  Veteran Todd Bertuzzi has played seven games, again due to back problems.  Forward Mikael Samuelsson has been on injured reserve three different times this season for three different injuries.  Defensemen Carlo Calaiacovo (shoulder) and Kyle Quincey (puck to the face) have also missed significant playing time.  Star forwards Henrik Zetterberg, Valteri Filppula, and Johan Franzen have also missed time due to nagging injuries.

So the youth movement may have been a little forced, but let's look what we were able to learn from it.    We'll look at the defense first.  Unfortunately this is the area where the youth shows up the most.  The young players have been out of position at times and too aggressive at others, which has led to some easy goals for the opposition.

Jakub Kindl has established that he can be a solid defenseman.  He was given an ultimatum at the beginning of the year that if his play didn't improve, he would not be given much playing time and he would be gone next season.  As of right now, he is tied for the lead in the plus-minus category (+14) with superstar forward Pavel Datsyuk, who one could easily argue is the second best player in the league, behind Sidney Crosby.

Brian Lashoff has been a pleasant surprise.  He essentially came out of nowhere and has been a solid defensive player for the team and is very valuable in penalty kill situations.  Brendan Smith is getting the playing time he needs.  There are very high expectations of Smith and he has shown signs of brilliance, but also tends to be one of the players in the wrong place at the wrong time.  But that is something he needs to learn and there is no need to lower any expectations.  He is big and fast.

The biggest move the Red Wings made around the trade deadline was signing fee agent prospect Danny DeKeyser, who recently finished his college career at Central Michigan.  DeKeyser made his debut with the Red Wings Friday night and showed why most of the league was interested in him.  He is a big, strong defenseman with good skating ability and seems to make smart decisions on the ice.  Needless to say, I was impressed and very happy.

The Wings have brought up a lot of young forwards from their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, and they have shown glimpses of a bright future in the NHL.  Gustov Nyquist has led the league in scoring in every league he has been in.  His transition to the NHL has been slow, but the last few games he has started to turn it on.  He shows flashes of Datysuk's ability at times.  Joakim Andersson was supposed to be called up for one game earlier in the year and has not left the line up since.  He has been a solid defensive forward with scoring ability.  Damien Brunner started the season on fire, but then hit a bit of a wall.  He seemed to be coming out of his funk and, surprise, he suffers an injury.  Cory Emmerton has been very good on the penalty kill and occasionally shows some scoring touch.  Tomas Tatar was up with the club briefly and showed that he can be an exciting player and a solid goal scorer.  Riley Sheahan was just called up to the team and may get his opportunity soon.

Jimmy Howard is the number one goaltender on the team and it is without question.  Unfortunately, backup goaltender, Jonas Gustovsson, has not been very good.  The Red Wings do not like to force their goaltenders into the league early.  They were forced to have 21-year old Petr Mrazek play two games this season and he was solid going 1-1.  However, he is not ready for the NHL.

Of the veterans on the team, Datsyuk has been nothing short of amazing.  He has been able to take the team on his shoulders and lead them to victory.  He has been a thrill to watch.  Some critics have been making comments that management is playing him out of town.  The big rumor is that Datsyuk wants to return home to Russia after his contract runs out at the end of next season.  If he does leave, it will be because he wants to be with his family and perform in front of a Russian crowd.  Datsyuk seems very happy to be a Red Wing (follow him on Twitter, he's hilarious).  One thing to remember is all of the rumors we heard about Lidstrom wanting to return home to Sweden any time his contract was due to expire.

The Red Wings may not make the playoffs this year and if they do, it might not last long but regardless, this has been a successful season moving to a future that should include more Stanley Cup Championships.  One thing Red Wing fans can agree on it that the Stanley Cup is what we want to see.  Some of us just need to be a little more patient.

~Brad