Sigh. Do I really have to write a new Detroit Red Wings preview?<\/p>\n
I should just use a template. Nothing changes. Two years ago or one year ago, the Red Wings had an ageless wonder on \u201cD\u201d in Nicklas Lidstrom, two of the game\u2019s best all-around players in Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom, a bonecrushing hitter in Niklas Kronwall, and a rising star goaltender in Jimmy Howard. Guess what? <\/p>\n
DETROIT RED WINGS<\/strong> Nothing has changed. The Wings have virtually the same team they do every year and, once again, will contend for Lord Stanley\u2019s Mug.<\/p>\n Just in case I can find something different about this team \u2013 which may move to the Eastern Conference next year \u2013 I\u2019ll try my best to offer some new information.<\/p>\n We keep waiting for Lidstrom to wilt. Instead, he wins his seventh Norris Trophy at age 41. He\u2019s a living legend and second only to Bobby Orr on my list of the greatest defenseman ever to play the sport. Obviously, he could break down any time now, but we have no choice but to trust him to be a 30-minute-a-night horse on Detroit\u2019s blueline until he proves otherwise. That means the Wings\u2019 defense corps is in good shape again.<\/p>\n With Brian Rafalski retiring, look for Niklas Kronwall to finally have that breakout offensive season people have expected for years. Ian White, a creative and well-rounded player, looks like a solid addition to the \u201cD\u201d as well.<\/p>\n Detroit\u2019s forwards are coach\u2019s pets, showing offensive flair but also great discipline and defensive responsibility (read: Cleary, Daniel). Enforcers and agitators simply don\u2019t play for this team, unless you count Todd Bertuzzi. Datsyuk and Zetterberg are still in their primes and outstanding at either end of the ice. Given his all-around ability, some people consider Datsyuk the best player in the world today.<\/p>\n The Red Wings do have one key weakness among their skaters, especially their forwards, which I believe has kept them from advancing past the second round of the playoffs two years running: size and sandpaper. [ad-4437448]<\/p>\n This is not a mean team and, up front, not a big team. Other than Bertuzzi, the Wings don\u2019t have an intimidator. Kronwall blows guys up with open-ice hits but isn\u2019t mean every shift; Johan \u201cThe Mule\u201d Franzen a big player but his size helps him score, not dish out punishment. When the playoffs come around, the Wings get pushed around a bit, and I think that\u2019s part of the reason why this team has struggled with injuries to almost all its players at various points in recent campaigns.<\/p>\n In goal, Jimmy Howard may have hit his ceiling. It feels like he\u2019s a young pup but he\u2019s actually 27. He\u2019s above-average, capable of starting 60-plus games, but he hasn\u2019t proven to be a consistent performer. Detroit\u2019s skaters positions themselves and backcheck so well, however, that an above-average goalie is all they really need. After all, they won the Stanley Cup in 2008 with Chris Osgood.<\/p>\n Detroit is once again a rock-solid choice to win the Central Division, tally 100-plus points and enter the playoffs as a legit contender. But has complacency set in? I don\u2019t see this group regressing from last year but I don\u2019t see it improving either. If Detroit wants the Cup, general manager Ken Holland needs to work the phones on deadline day and acquire some size and grit.<\/p>\n Prediction: <\/strong>1st<\/sup>, Central Division<\/p>\n CappersPicks.com\u00a0NHL Betting<\/strong><\/a> and gambling site provides the BEST Online\u00a0hockey predictions<\/strong><\/a> for you to bet on for the 2011\/12 NHL hockey season! Stick with us all season long!<\/p>\n Shea Matthews weighs in with his 2011-2012 Detroit Red Wings Season Gambling Picks and NHL Preview, plus he provides the lastest NHL odds, Red Wings future lines, and Stanley Cup predictions\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":32343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[52497,52498,52104,52105,5197,17638,17823,35366,35367,1968],"class_list":["post-44122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl","tag-2011-red-wings-predictions","tag-2011-red-wings-season-preview","tag-2011-2012-nhl-predictions","tag-201112-nhl-preview","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-nhl-hockey-predictions","tag-nhl-season-preview","tag-red-wings-nhl-schedule","tag-red-wings-odds","tag-stanley-cup-odds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44122"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44176,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44122\/revisions\/44176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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