Detroit's Defense Reaches Critical Mass

The defending Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings have hit a couple significant road bumps this month in their bid to repeat. Those bumps came in the form of a pair of Saturday losses in which they surrendered a total of 16 goals to possible first-round opponents. The losses provided a stark reminder of the team's major issue this season: defense.

In March 2008, you could easily make the argument that the Wings had the best defense in hockey. They had an incredible group of defensemen together with an impeccable overall commitment to team defense, from the blueliners to the forwards. It was this quality that led to their eventual championship as much as their offensive skills. This year, however, anyone arguing that the Wings are tops defensively would be a fool and a liar.

At this point in the season, the Wings are 21st in the league with 2.96 GA/G. With 16 games left in the season, they've allowed 195 goals in total, which is 16 more than they allowed all last season. Even a player as consistent as Lidstrom has been "off" enough this year to be a side story in Norris discussions.

What changed? Not personnel. As far as defensemen go, this team is identical to last year's squad. They still boast such names as Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski, Niklas Kronwall, and Brad Stuart. That's a pretty solid group of players that most fans would like to have.

Up front, not much has changed for the worse. Dallas Drake retired, and cost the team a hard-checking forward, but Tomas Kopecky has been able to fill in ably, more or less. They brought in a defensively-responsible Marian Hossa and retained players committed to two-way play such as Pavel Datsuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Valtteri Filppula, Johan Franzen, Dan Cleary, Kris Draper, and the list goes on.

The answer may lie behind the bench, where there was a major change when Todd McClellan left for San Jose in the off-season. Although McLellan was the forwards coach, anyone who's watched what he's done in San Jose can easily make a connection to that team's defensive success and the Wings' lack of it.

The Sharks were already an organization that placed a premium on defense, but it's safe to say they've reached another level under McLellan. It doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility that he played a similar role for Detroit from the forwards coach spot, especially when you consider that the Wings' main trouble stems from a lack of team defense, not necessarily bad play on the part of the defensemen themselves. If not having McLellan instilling defensive thought into the forward corps on a daily basis is leading to the disruption of the flow between the front and the back of the Wings' formation, it's easy to see that the problem is less personnel than it is mindset.

So the team has changed its mindset. That's the problem. What's the solution? Obviously it's not McLellan. He's gone and doing his work for the Sharks now. What, then? They have to change their mindset back and start making the sacrifices that a team defense-first game requires.

That's easier said than done, of course, since it's been said all season. One thing this team hasn't lacked this year is talk. And talk has earned them an 8-0 loss to Nashville and an 8-2 loss to Columbus on consecutive Saturdays. With the playoffs just around the corner, and a race with McLellan's Sharks reaching the final turn, the team has to figure something out, or they're headed to a first-round shocker.

It's a cliche, but I think it applies in this case: it will take a return to basics. As the team has had to adjust to their defensive shortcomings, they've developed a tendency to be overly cute with the puck in an effort to generate enough offense to stay ahead of their opponents. It's worked well enough to take them to 94 points and the second spot in the West, but it's also led to the kind of hideous turnovers that defined Saturday's game with Columbus. If the Wings can slow things down a bit and make calculated plays rather than overly-artistic ones, they'll be in infinitely better shape.

Whether it's the loss of McLellan or just a simple case of Stanley Cup hangover, the Wings are in trouble unless they can get this corrected. Fans of other teams may be wondering how we in Detroit can complain about a second-place team. As an answer, I say this isn't about regular season success. We Wings fans know that the world's greatest record through 82 games played means nothing if you don't bring your absolute best to the playoffs. 94 points or not, the Wings have not been their best.

Two eight-goal games ought to provide the motivation to fix that.