Detroit Red Wings 2009 Season Preview, Picks & Odds

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Detroit Red Wings 2008-’09 record:
51-21-10, 112 points (1st in Central, 3rd in West)

Detroit Red Wings 2008-’09 playoffs:
Def. Columbus Blue Jackets 4-0, def. Anaheim Ducks 4-3, def. Chicago Blackhawks 4-1, lost to Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3

Last season was extremely successful as the Red Wings repeated as Central Division Champions with an impressive 51-21-10 record and their strong showing earned the 2 nd overall seed in the Western Conference. After the Sharks’ upset at the hands of Anaheim in the first round, Detroit claimed home ice for the rest of the playoffs and they took advantage, qualifying for the Stanley Cup Finals for the second consecutive year. A familiar foe awaited them: The youthful Pittsburgh Penguins, whom the Wings had defeated the previous year in 6 games to hoist the Cup. However, Pittsburgh shocked the Wings by forcing a 7 th game and won the Stanley Cup on Detroit ice.

Detroit Red Wings 2009 Preview

Detroit Red Wings General manager: Ken Holland (544-232-126, 12th NHL year, 1st team)

Detroit Red Wings Coach: Mike Babcock (282-153-57, 7th NHL year, 2nd team)

Detroit Red Wings Captain: Nicklas Lidstrom

Detroit Red Wings Top Returning Scorer: C Pavel Datsyuk (32 goals, 65 assists, 97 points)

Detroit Red Wings Top Returning Goalie: Chris Osgood (26-9-8, 3.09, .887)

Detroit Red Wings Key Additions: RW Patrick Eaves; RW Jeremy Williams; RW Todd Bertuzzi.

Detroit Red Wings Key Subtractions: G Ty Conklin; RW Marian Hossa; RW Tomas Kopecky; RW Mikael Samuelsson; RW Jiri Hudler; D Chris Chelios; RW Darren McCarty; RW Aaron Downey

Detroit Red Wings Top Line: LW Johan Franzen; C Henrik Zetterberg; RW Dan Cleary

Detroit Red Wings Top Defensive Pairing: Nicklas Lidstrom, Brain Rafalski

The good news is that the Wings were already one of the league’s highest scoring squads and should still be far more than adequate this fall. Few teams can boast two centers of Henrik Zetterberg or Pavel Datsyuk’s quality and wingers like John Franzen, Tomas Holmstrom, Daniel Cleary and Bertuzzi should round out two extremely strong lines. The Red Wings also have a lot of youth on hand, most notably Ville Leino, Darren Helm and Justin Abdelkater, all of whom impressed during the playoffs last season and are expected to play significantly bigger roles this season. Detroit should still score a ton of goals but they probably won’t be as lethal as last season without Hossa.

Defensively, the Red Wings are the envy of the league. Quiet captain Nick Lidstrom is simply the most consistently excellent player in hockey and will remain one of the truly elite players in the game until his retirement. However, Brian Rafalski and Nicklas Kronwall are also exceptional defenders and the final three of Andreas Lilja, Brett Ledba and Brad Stuart are stalwarts in their own end and would likely fit seamlessly into most team’s top pairings. This is a fantastic set of defensemen from one through six.

The goaltender position is where most detractors believe the Wings will struggle. After all, Chris Osgood is older and simply doesn’t look like an elite goaltender. Heck, Yzerman is in charge of Canada’s Olympic program and didn’t even make Osgood one of the FIVE goalies invited to camp this summer! You can’t really blame Stevie Y because for most of last season, the detractors were right. Until Osgood was sent away from the team to get his head right at mid-winter he stunk and Conklin carried the team. However, he was solid upon his return and he was nothing short of masterful in the playoffs. In fact, if the Wings had won the Cup, I would have bet that Osgood would have won the Conn Smythe Trophy! The really pressing question is whether he’ll avoid a similar letdown to start this season because new backup Jimmy Howard is unproven at the NHL level.

2009 Detroit Red Wings Goaltending:

Osgood endured the worst regular season of his career, then rebounded to play so well in the playoffs and would have won the Conn Smythe Trophy had the Wings captured the Stanley Cup. Solid positional netminder with quick reflexes joined Terry Sawchuk as only goalies to win 300 games as a Red Wing.

2009 Detroit Red Wings Player To Watch:

RW Ville Leino. Finnish Elite League MVP in 2007-08 will be counted on to replace the combined 82 goals lost via the departure of free agents Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson and Jiri Hudler. Posted 5-4-9 numbers during brief 13-game stint with Wings last season. Creative with puck and a deadly finisher around the net.

2009 Detroit Red Wings Offense:

Lidstrom had his run of three straight Norris Torphy wins snapped by Boston’s Zdeno Chara, but was a finalist for the 10th time in 11 seasons with six trophy wins. Lidstrom, the only European captain of a Cup champion, was third among NHL defenseman with 59 points — including 16 goals. He needs three points to become the eighth NHL defenseman with 1,000. Datsyuk, fourth in league scoring last season, won multiple awards for the second straight year, taking the Lady Byng and Selke. He is the first player to win both in consecutive seasons.

2009 Detroit Red Wings Schedule | 2009 Central Division Preview | 2009 Western Conference Preview
Detroit Red Wings Sportsbooks

Detroit Red Wings 2009 Season Predictions

The Wings lost a lot of offense, but should still have enough to hold off Chicago and win the Central title again. But don’t expect another long playoff run out of them this spring.

We predict that the Detroit Red Wings will finish 1st in the NHL Central, 2nd seed in West: 103 points.

Detroit Red Wings Betting

Detroit Red Wings Stanley Cup Odds: +600
Detroit Red Wings Western Conference Odds: +280
Detroit Red Wings Central Odds: -110

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