"There's so Much Potential in This Room": Painful Ending Shows Red Wings' Progress & Need for Further Growth

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Last night in Montreal, the Red Wings ran through a remarkable emotional gauntlet over the span of about 15 minutes.

First they needed an equalizer with their net pulled.  The Canadiens iced the puck with inside of 10 seconds to play, and the game and season appeared lost only for a David Perron one-timer through traffic to tie the game with just 3.3 seconds left.  Detroit had pulled its season back from the brink one more time.

But cruelly and simultaneously, some 450 miles due south in Philadelphia, the Flyers had pulled their goalie—not knowing that Perron’s goal had eliminated them from playoff contention, instead believing a regulation win was their only path to the postseason—in a tied game, only for Capitals winger T.J. Oshie to deposit the puck into the vacant net.

Within 10 minutes of real time, Washington would close out the victory, and the Red Wings learned on the visitors bench at the Bell Center that their season was over.  Patrick Kane would score a pyrrhic shootout winner—vintage Kane: wide route, lots of stick-handles, a lethal and inscrutable release to finish—but as Detroit’s tepid celebration showed, it was powerless to change their fate.

“It’s hard—gutting,” said captain Dylan.  We’re pretty sad in here.  To see it come to an end—we have a great group of guys, a fun year, a great year—to see it come to an end like that is very sad, very hard.” “What are you gonna do, you know?” he went on to ask rhetorically, explaining that it was just before the shootout that he and his teammates learned their fate by virtue of the result in Washington, who owned the tiebreaker over Detroit with the two sides both at 91 points.

In the end, the Red Wings lacked agency to determine their own fate, doing all they could in a season-ending home-and-home to position themselves for the East’s final wild card position, but the Capitals took that fight out of their hands.

The cruelty of the ending reflects both the progress Detroit did make this year and the work that still needs to be done, because of course, while the Red Wings only recourse was to win the two in front of them entering this week and hope for help, it wasn’t so long ago they were in the driver’s seat for the playoff spot that slipped away on the season’s final day.

“I wish we had more with this group,” said Larkin.  “Wish we had the opportunity to play in the playoffs.  It would’ve been so much fun.”

“For this team, the way that we battled whether it was to come back in games or just find ourselves in this position, it was incredible,” added Kane.  “It was like nothing I’ve ever seen. There’s no quit in this team. Really had a lot of fun playing with these guys and playing for the team here in general.”

Despite the ending, there was undeniable progress in the season for these Red Wings.  Most notably, there was the way the team’s two ascending stars matured into NHL roles and the way a tactical identity began to take shape for a team that looked more a mess than a unit through the preceding years of rebuilding.

“I think we became a team later on in the season,” said Perron after last night’s game. “We became more selfless. It was all about the team. Many ways to see that: guys blocking shots, guys maybe having left ice time, all that stuff, maybe playing the right way. When you do that, maybe it seems like you take away from your offense, but in the end, playing in these big games, big moments, it kinda goes the other way. You see [Lucas Raymond]. That’s the best example we have. He was always playing the right way, but he’s came through for us with so many big goals doing it the right way all year. He’s emerged as a leader for us, and he’s not alone.”

To his first point, ’23-24 saw Detroit’s best hockey come under a stingy defensive system predicated on protecting the slot, exiting its own end cleanly, and creating offense through a heavy forecheck supplemented by potent finishing off the rush.  Under Derek Lalonde, the Red Wings have purpose and shape absent in years past.  To Perron’s second point, there was no greater success to Detroit’s season than they strides taken by the two cornerstones of the Steve Yzerman-driven rebuild: Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider.

“What I like in a young player like [them], they battled for the team,” said Lalonde of the duo. “It was never about themselves. It was about winning. That’s been those guys from day one here. That’s a very good sign for us going forward.”  Both entered the year as obvious talents and emerging stars within the league, but as was the case for their team, both had work to do to clarify their roles within a winning organization.

Raymond raced past his career highs in goals, assists, and points to finish the year with 31 goals and 41 helpers for 72 points, but, perhaps more importantly, he evolved as a relentless power forward, capable of driving offense even when all around him floundered.  Seider played preposterously difficult minutes and established himself as a defensive workload with his physicality and desire to block shots.  He didn’t need much of the offensive flair he’d already shown; instead, leading his team with a selfless willingness to sacrifice attacking opportunity to absorb pressure.

Between 11 points of progress in the standings and the growth of both Seider and Raymond, it was a season of undeniable progress for Detroit.  “You’ll be able to reflect and look back,” said Larkin.  “I’m a fan of this team, and I get to play on this team, but you can see the future right in front of us.  It’s pretty special.  I think this season was a statement that the organization’s back and heading in the right direction.”

“I’m proud of this group, and everything we’ve accomplished,” he continued.  “Every time we had adversity we came back from it.  Every time people counted us out we came back, and we did it together.  You saw young players taking a step in leadership.  It’s heading in the right direction, and I’m proud to be a part of this group.”

Kane added simply, “There’s so much potential in this room.  They have a lot of pieces that will help them for a long time.”

Yet for all that progress, the end of the season also brought forth a fundamental hollowness at an opportunity that slipped away.  In mid-February, the Eastern wild card was the Red Wings’ to lose, and, well, they lost it.  The conclusion showed their resilience, but it’s impossible to keep the struggles down the stretch from tainting the year’s sense of progress.  Yes, they climbed the standings.  Yes, they did what they could to stay alive to the bitter end.  But also, a squandered late season opportunity left them dependent on the kindness of the out-of-town scoreboard, which they didn’t receive.

The disappointment of the finish shouldn’t obscure the progress of the season, but it’s undeniable that the path forward to contention will prove even more difficult.  Seider and Raymond combined to count $1,788,333 against the cap this season.  That number will increase roughly ten-fold by the time next season begins as both players graduate from their entry-level contracts.  Their increased cap numbers will make it more difficult to bolster the roster with unrestricted free agent acquisitions (the strategy of the last two summers that has brought Detroit to its present circumstances).

And, of course, there are massive UFA decisions to make this summer, most notably both Kane and Perron.  With Seider and Raymond’s raises, it will be nearly impossible to keep both around.

As the season reached its end last night, there were reasonable arguments to be made on both sides of the question as to whether a playoff berth was essential to marking the ’23-24 season as a successful one.  What’s clear now however is that it will be impossible to achieve progress in 2024-25 without the year campaign concluding in the postseason.

“These games were very important,” proclaimed Lalonde.  “We’ve pushed this group forward, and we’re gonna keep pushing.”  We won’t know for certain whether his declaration comes true for a year, but if he can’t push Detroit into the playoffs next season (the final year of the three-year contract he signed to become the Red Wings coach), he’s unlikely to have another chance.

This season wasn’t “do-or-die” with respect to the health of the Yzer-plan and the push for the playoffs, but next will be.  And that’s the present challenge for Yzerman, Lalonde, Larkin, Raymond, and Seider to conquer.  As Kane’s remark about potential suggests, achieving that ambition is within reach, but there will be no more room for progress without playoffs in the years to come.

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