The Detroit Red Wings allowed five or more goals 18 times last season and four goals in 19 other games, meaning they needed at least five goals to win 47.5% of their games, which is an unreasonable expectation in the NHL.
Meanwhile, their Atlantic Division rival, the Florida Panthers, have allowed five or more points in eight of their 82 games and two or fewer points in 41 games.
The Panthers won the Stanley Cup and the Red Wings missed the playoffs for the eighth straight season.
Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman said the team is looking to strengthen all positions, but made clear that the team's No. 1 priority is to reduce the number of runs conceded next season, and Yzerman said everyone, including the coaching staff, needs to buy into that mission.
“We need to get better in all aspects of keeping the puck out of the goal. Not just our goalie, but our defensemen, our forwards as well,” Yzerman said.
Red Wings GAA cuts
While Yzerman appreciated the Red Wings' hard work to stay in playoff contention with late comebacks and dramatic wins, he also understood that a lack of defensive consistency has been a weakness for the team.
The Red Wings ranked 24th in goals allowed, and the bottom 10 teams in that category all missed the playoffs.
Yzerman wants his team's defense to become more predictable, more reliable, more straightforward and maybe even boring. Teams that follow that script usually have a better chance of making the playoffs.
“Whether it's implementing a different system, improving the way we play, improving players within the system, it's incumbent on our coaching staff to instill that, improve that and keep working on it,” Yzerman said. “For me, it's just practice, practice, practice and get it done.”
This is certainly not a new approach, and it seems like teams have been talking about blocking shots and preventing shots a lot more in recent years.
“Goals conceded is an issue throughout the league,” Yzerman said. “It's an offensive league. You look at the goals scored by the top players in the league. Goalies' goals conceded average (is up). It's a tough league to defend in right now. For whatever reason, we're becoming more offensive, and that's fun and exciting, but the best team in the league is probably somewhere near the top in goals conceded and defensive play, whether that's traditional stats or basic numbers. So we've got to collectively get better as a team. That's the biggest thing.”
The start of the Edvinsson era
The blue-line group will be different. Simon Edvinsson, who is 6-foot-6, should play regularly and likely finish in the top four. He's been working on gaining weight this summer in anticipation of a promotion to the NHL.
One surprise for fans will be that Justin Holl is still with the team and could potentially take on a larger role this season as one of just three right-handed defensemen on the team. The Red Wings could acquire Holl, but Yzerman knows Holl can play in a shutdown role. That could be something Holl could contribute to the team.
The Red Wings were unable to re-sign Shayne Gostisbeaer, which will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the team's power play. Yzerman brought in Erik Gustafsson to help fill Gostisbeaer's minutes as the point man. But Gostisbeaer's absence may help the Red Wings concede fewer goals. Gostisbeaer is a risk taker who isn't as focused on the puck on the defensive end as he is when he has the puck.
We can also expect rookie Albert Johansson to get some playing time this season. Johansson is a consistent performer who knows his main mission is to prevent the other team from scoring. If he can avoid making too many of the rookie mistakes, he could be the young defenseman that coach Derek Lalonde expects him to be. First, Johansson must beat out William Lagesson for the No. 8 spot.
To qualify for the playoffs, the Red Wings have allowed 273 goals, but they may need to cut that total to 250. Moritz Seider's continued development will be key to that aspiration. Of course, the mission would be made easier if one of their four goalies with NHL experience (Ville Husso, Cam Talbot, Alex Lyon or Jack Campbell) plays a big part.
“Maybe we can win some games with low scoring and not have a blowout comeback loss, or maybe we're leading and we don't have a blowout loss,” Yzerman said. “I think it's going to end up being a different outcome.”
