BTJ 2008-2009 Season Preview
Later today, the Detroit Red Wings begin their 2008-2009 regular season. Finally! Despite having the shortest off-season this year, it seems like we had to go forever without hockey so it’s always exciting for it to start back up again. As Red Wings fans, we have a lot to be excited about. For starters, we get to watch the banner ceremony tonight as the Wings celebrate their eleventh Stanley Cup win in franchise history. The entire 2007-2008 team will be in attendance including recently retired goaltender Dominik Hasek and forward Dallas Drake. Now, this may be the awkward part for Marian Hossa, but hopefully he’ll get one of his own after this season. All the fans in attendance will receive a replica banner courtesy of Bank of America. So fans, players, and staff will be in a celebratory mood tonight and what better way to start off the season.
So the Wings lost two players. Period. And that was to retirement. And I don’t think any of us minded that these players actually retired. Our new additions include two former Pittsburgh players, backup goaltender Ty Conklin and a certain Marian Hossa. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him or not, but he’s apparently supposed to be pretty good. Now he is facing the possible Sports Illustrated jinx and the great expectations Wings fans have of a back-to-back championship, but I think Hossa is up for the challenge. Do I think he’ll have the same production level as he did with Atlanta last year? Not necessarily. Partnering with Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom may boost his point totals, but they don’t have to. The joy of the Detroit Red Wings is that we have so many great players that we don’t have to rely on one player for our offense. I mean some of our third liners could possibly be on another team’s first line. That’s depth my friends. Hossa doesn’t have to have a career season for the Wings to succeed. All we need from him is chemistry with Datsyuk so that Henrik Zetterberg can actually center the second line for most of the season. If we can get two ridiculous lines rolling with consistent offensive production, our team is going to scare the opposition.
Everyone else has made their predictions so what are my predictions for this season? I believe Detroit will win it again. I’m almost afraid to say it and (1) sound cocky or (2) jinx it, but on paper I believe our team is hands-down the best. Now a lot has to go right for the Wings to win it again. An injury or two to key players around playoff time would make a repeat pretty hard or impossible (if a certain Swede went down). But outside of that, I believe we have the right head coach and team mindset to ensure that we don’t have the Stanley Cup hangover. Hossa came to win the Cup. While we’d love to have him back next season, the cap is going to make it pretty challenging for GM Ken Holland to get him to stay and re-sign Zetterberg AND Johan Franzen. Holland has stated that we have a one-year window with this lineup. Drake’s presence in the roster was a huge motivating factor to the team come playoff time. I believe Hossa’s presence can do the same thing. He wants to win it. Bad. He was willing to give up tens of millions of dollars for a shot at the Cup. I would say that’s good enough motivation. Will there be challenges this season? There always are. But if any team can overcome the hangover, Detroit can. They were the last ones to do it in 1997 and 1998 and I believe they can do it again.
In terms of the Central, I think the Chicago Blackhawks will once again be a thorn in our side and even make the playoffs this year (hopefully they won’t be our first round opponent). Chicago was only three points out of the playoffs last season and I believe the improvements they have made this off-season (Campbell and Huet) will push them into the postseason. I even think Nashville could squeak in depending on how close the Western Conference race is this season.
While I was happy to see former assistant coach Todd McLellan get promoted to a head coaching position, he’s going to make the San Jose Sharks more of a challenge for us this season. This year, we were fortunate to not play them or the Anaheim Ducks in the postseason. While I hope that holds true this year as well, I think we’ll see the Sharks in the Western Conference Finals.
In the East, I’m going with the Cinderella pick of the Washington Capitals. A bit crazy, but I love the energized fan base over there and Alexander Ovechkin has a better supporting cast around him. It would be too easy to pick the Montreal Canadiens, although winning the Cup in the franchise’s 100th year would be a great storyline. And I know Penguins fans won’t agree with me, but I don’t think the Penguins will return to the Finals. They certainly are still a great team, but they lost a lot of solid players this off-season and then a couple key players got some injuries to start the season off so I’m not going to pick them for the Finals.
When it comes to Red Wings player predictions, here are my thoughts:
- Breakout season: Valtteri Filppula. He is likely going to be centering the third line (with Dan Cleary and Mikael Samuelsson) and has a chance to really prove himself this season. However, he could always get bumped up to Zetterberg’s line and if that’s the case, I expect his offensive production to really jump.
- Proving it’s not a fluke: Johan Franzen & Niklas Kronwall. Franzen started off last season scoring like crazy before a leg injury took him out. He regained his offensive production in the final quarter of the season and would’ve won the Conn Smythe had it not been for a head injury. I think we’ll see Franzen consistently scoring like crazy in his contract year. Last season, we finally saw the Niklas Kronwall that management had predicted. Kronner kept getting injured in prior years and we never got a full season of his play. We finally did and we loved it. He’s a physical player reminiscent of Vladimir Konstantinov. Big hits (yes, he does leave his feet sometimes, I know) with an offensive touch. I think we’ll see more of this from Kronner now that he will be paired with Brad Stuart all season.
- Biggest worry: Goaltending. Fortunately for Detroit, our goaltenders don’t usually have to win games for us. We need them to be good and sometimes great, but we usually don’t need outstanding performances night after night. Our weakest area has to be goaltending with Chris Osgood and Ty Conklin. If they can share the load (Ozzie is looking at 55 games, Conklin 27 or so) and stay healthy, I think we’re good. If either one gets injured for a lengthier period of time, that could be a problem for our team.
- GR Player: If a forward on the Wings goes down with an injury, look for Ville Leino to make the lineup. He was the Finnish Elite League MVP that Detroit signed shortly after Fabian Brunnstrom signed with Dallas. He was fourth in offensive production this preseason and has the nose for the net according to Babcock. Hopefully some time in the AHL will help him quickly adjust to the North American style of play. The Wings’ depth is crazy so there are a lot of other exciting players to watch for in GR. Enough to actually make me want to drive to GR to take in a game.
Well, those are my thoughts on the upcoming season. What do you think about the season?
Puck drops tonight at 7pm on Versus. Go Wings!
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One Response to “BTJ 2008-2009 Season Preview”
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October 9th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Great post. No disrespect to the Leafs, they played a tight defensive game tonight, but the Wings showed that perhaps their biggest opponent will be complacency. The intensity level wasn’t there, but hey it’s one game.