While the Detroit Red Wings are one of the longest established teams in the NHL, it isn’t easy to see them setting the league alight during the 2022-23 season.
They haven’t entered the postseason for the past six seasons, and it’s tough to see it changing now. However, they are trending in the right direction by having more wins than the previous year in each of the last three seasons.
While the Red Wings aren’t necessarily a bad team, they aren’t one of the best either. A lot of bookies had them at mid level odds for NHL betting in preseason, which is a fair reflection of how they’ve started this campaign.
Team captain Dylan Larkin is one of the Red Wings’ go-to players. He had 31 goals and 38 assists last season. He also leads the team early in the 2022-23 season. He will get much-needed support from wingers Dominik Kubalik and David Perron.
Defenseman Filip Hronek and left-wing Lucas Raymond also have 11 goals between them. Ben Chiarot and Moritz Seider also complete their starting rotation. Finally, Ville Husso is their leading goaltender with a 92.2 save percentage. He is surrendering around 2.36 goals per game.
The Red Wings won 32 games last season, significantly improving from 19 in 2020-21 and 17 in 2019-20. That number also matches their second-highest win total in the previous six seasons.
Still, that’s a far cry from the franchise’s glorious past, especially from their last Stanley Cup victory in 2008.
Detroit hasn’t made the playoffs since 2016, when they went out in the first round to the Tampa Bay Lightning, which marks recent years as the worst in the history of the franchise. However, there has been some improvement over the last couple of years, but it remains to be seen whether 2022-23 can be the year that the playoff drought ends for the Red Wings.
The Red Wings franchise was established in 1926 and was initially known as the Detroit Cougars. They became the Detroit Falcons in 1930 and the Red Wings in 1932. They are among the most successful NHL franchises of all time, with 11 Stanley Cups, six conference championships, and six Presidents’ Trophies. The Red Wings also have 19 division titles.
The franchise clinched 25 consecutive playoff berths from 1990-91 to 2015-16. In 2006, that streak became the longest among all North American professional sports teams. The Red Wings’ success also led to Detroit being known as “Hockeytown,” a trademark they’ve owned since 1996.
The Red Wings currently play their home games at Little Caesars Arena, which opened in 2017. It can accommodate up to 19,515 spectators for an ice hockey game, and the Red Wings share the venue with the NBA’s Detroit Pistons.
To call Red Wings fans passionate is an understatement. They pack the seats during home games, regardless of their team’s performance. Their reverberating cheers make the venue one of the loudest in the NHL. They’ve also maintained the tradition of playing the horn after every Red Wings goal at home. However, they are now using a recording of the original sound used at Joe Louis Arena.
The Red Wings have a long-standing rivalry with the Chicago Blackhawks. Aside from being members of the Original Six, they’ve also met in two Conference Finals. Their last playoff meeting came in 2013, wherein the Blackhawks won in seven games. However, the Red Wings lead the all-time series, 410-320-84-17. In contrast, the Blackhawks lead their postseason tally at 43-38.
Detroit also has an intense rivalry with the Toronto Maple Leafs. But while they’ve met in the Stanley Cup seven times, the Red Wings have defeated them only once. Unsurprisingly, the Red Wings have had the most hockey fights, with the Maple Leafs at 243.
