Red Wings March 2026 Games Thread

[buddha]

another year and another collapse.  and we dont even get a middling pick out of it this year.

this was the year they fixed the goalie.  this was the year they made a move at the deadline.  this was the year they traded the future for the present.

and it looks like theyre going to fail again.  if they do, they should make changes.  the careful plodding approach, taking low ceiling high floor guys, not overspending on high impact players, hasnt worked out.

time for a change.

[gehringer_2]

Kasper - 1 shot: Raymond - 1 shot: VanRiemsdyk - 0 shots: Copp - 0 shots.

Sider - 7 shots: Edvinsson - 3 shots

Notice anything wrong with this picture? 

You can't score if you aren't even shooting. If you aren't shooting you are either passing up chances or not skilled enough or skating enough to get to open ice. 

[Jason_R]

IIRC JVR had a deflection chance go off the post. 

[lordstanley]

On 3/2/2026 at 7:40 AM, lordstanley said:

Upon us is the dreaded March. Wings are 4th in the Atlantic, 7th in the East, 5 pts up with 2 games in hand on 9th place Washington. 22 Wings games to go in the regular season. 

So let's check and see how we're doing on March 24, shall we? 4-5-2 for 10 pts in 11 games in March. Wings are 6th in the Atlantic, 10th in the East, 1 pt behind 8th place Ottawa with the same number of games played. 11 Wings games to go in the regular season - 5 at home, 6 on the road.

Edited yesterday at 02:51 AM by lordstanley

[Mr.TaterSalad]

1 hour ago, buddha said:

another year and another collapse.  and we dont even get a middling pick out of it this year.

this was the year they fixed the goalie.  this was the year they made a move at the deadline.  this was the year they traded the future for the present.

and it looks like theyre going to fail again.  if they do, they should make changes.  the careful plodding approach, taking low ceiling high floor guys, not overspending on high impact players, hasnt worked out.

time for a change.

Missing out on a top center in the draft really hurt this organization. In order to compensate for that Yzerman either needed to keep tanking until he got his 90-100 point center or pivoted and built a team in the mold of Florida, Vegas or 2019 St. Louis. It means building a team with great goaltending that can steal a game. Putting two strong defensive units that are sound with the puck, can kill penalties, and can create scoring opportunities. Having 3 lines worth of double digit point producers and 10+ goal scores. Being physical and having a ruthless forehead. 

Yzerman hasn't done much of that. Until getting Gibson we had one of the worst goaltending situations in the league. He has also refused to give his young goalie in Cossa a real, extended chance in the big leagues. Until this year, he had a team with a historically bad penalty kill. One the gave up goals constantly on the PK. He's also built one of the softest teams in the league that is weak on the forecheck and is often muscled off the puck. He's not built any scoring depth beyond his first line and Patrick Kane on his second line. 

I get that we had historically bad draft lottery luck. I get that we missed out on getting our McDavid, Bedard, or Celibrini. We didn't get the chance to get a 90-100 point guy in the draft. But that's where it was his job to pivot and take a different approach. Either be more aggressive with drafting high ceiling players or be aggressive with a trade. He did neither. Nor did he model his roster construction off of other teams who gave lacked a 100 point producer like Florida, St. Louis, and Vegas. 

I'm not ready to change out our front office leadership just yet, but I'm getting close. 7 years in and we're going to likely miss the playoffs yet again. This is not enjoyable. 

[sagnam]

Having an offense that has no toughness and that needs to dump because then can’t carry the zone is not a recipe for success. Your goalie can only steal so many games. Pick one, abrasive or skilled. Not abrasive and not skilled shouldn’t be an option. I’d rather have ASP making mistakes but moving the puck than this dump and retreat style we are playing now. 

[Hongbit]

9 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Missing out on a top center in the draft really hurt this organization. In order to compensate for that Yzerman either needed to keep tanking until he got his 90-100 point center or pivoted and built a team in the mold of Florida, Vegas or 2019 St. Louis. It means building a team with great goaltending that can steal a game. Putting two strong defensive units that are sound with the puck, can kill penalties, and can create scoring opportunities. Having 3 lines worth of double digit point producers and 10+ goal scores. Being physical and having a ruthless forehead. 

Yzerman hasn't done much of that. Until getting Gibson we had one of the worst goaltending situations in the league. He has also refused to give his young goalie in Cossa a real, extended chance in the big leagues. Until this year, he had a team with a historically bad penalty kill. One the gave up goals constantly on the PK. He's also built one of the softest teams in the league that is weak on the forecheck and is often muscled off the puck. He's not built any scoring depth beyond his first line and Patrick Kane on his second line. 

I get that we had historically bad draft lottery luck. I get that we missed out on getting our McDavid, Bedard, or Celibrini. We didn't get the chance to get a 90-100 point guy in the draft. But that's where it was his job to pivot and take a different approach. Either be more aggressive with drafting high ceiling players or be aggressive with a trade. He did neither. Nor did he model his roster construction off of other teams who gave lacked a 100 point producer like Florida, St. Louis, and Vegas. 

I'm not ready to change out our front office leadership just yet, but I'm getting close. 7 years in and we're going to likely miss the playoffs yet again. This is not enjoyable. 

The misses on the signings of Copp & Compher are brutal and continue to hurt the organization.  They were both signed coming off big playoff runs and supposed to solidify the 2nd line and 2nd special teams.    Despite a few short stretches, they have both failed miserably in that goal.  They are very average players doing very average things and have being doing it for multiple seasons.   They need to be replaced and shouldn’t be anywhere near a top 6 role anymore.   The team should instantly get better the moment a new GM can move off these mistakes.  

[gehringer_2]

9 hours ago, sagnam said:

Pick one, abrasive or skilled. Not abrasive and not skilled shouldn’t be an option

Bingo - the wings have gotten themselves trapped in  no man's land of team construction.

Quote

I’d rather have ASP making mistakes but moving the puck than this dump and retreat style we are playing now. 

Yup - the lack of speed, or in particular, quickness, shows up in their inability to close on guys to get take aways in the their defensive zone. They have to hang back because they know if they try to pressure they will get left behind. Virtually every team we play can put pressure on an offense in their defensive zone better than the Wings can. And it hasn't changed in 7 yrs. The big D men have helped a lot down low  but  the pressure they continue to lack is from their forwards above the half board. And of course it plays both ways, lack of quickness means they can't break a good forecheck and they don't have the power players to push through it. 

In my book McLellan is some kind of genius for getting this team as fars as he does.

Edited 18 hours ago by gehringer_2

[Jason_R]

1 hour ago, Hongbit said:

The misses on the signings of Copp & Compher are brutal and continue to hurt the organization.  They were both signed coming off big playoff runs and supposed to solidify the 2nd line and 2nd special teams.    Despite a few short stretches, they have both failed miserably in that goal.  They are very average players doing very average things and have being doing it for multiple seasons.   They need to be replaced and shouldn’t be anywhere near a top 6 role anymore.   The team should instantly get better the moment a new GM can move off these mistakes.  

They were not misses. They always were average players signed at market prices to fill out the roster while the talent pipeline was restocked. 

The market is the market. This is why Yzerman does not want to build a team through FA. 

But it’s time now for the prospects to do something. Finnie is a great story. Kasper needs to produce. Danielson and ASP and MBN need to produce. Either on the ice or in a trade for a top line forward. 

[Hongbit]

29 minutes ago, Jason_R said:

They were not misses. They always were average players signed at market prices to fill out the roster while the talent pipeline was restocked. 

The market is the market. This is why Yzerman does not want to build a team through FA. 

But it’s time now for the prospects to do something. Finnie is a great story. Kasper needs to produce. Danielson and ASP and MBN need to produce. Either on the ice or in a trade for a top line forward. 

Huge misses.  Don’t care if the contract AAV were good  or not.   These guys were not able to do what they were supposed to do.  They were brought in to solidify line 2 and they haven’t made that  happen now 3 and 4 years in.  

They haven’t helped the team take the next step to make the playoffs.   Contrary to accepted belief, they have actually tried to build a team to make it each of the last 4 years. 

If they were really signed as placeholders until the team was ready for playoff,  then why are they still on the roster now? Average guys filling a place signed to a 5 year term doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense.  They are in playoff mode and these guys are still here.  Copp has one year left after this and Compher two.  They were signed to be part of the move to the next step and they’ve underachieved at helping to do that. 

[buddha]

copp has been good, compher was a big miss.  not replacing rasmussen was a miss.  not getting bigger up front was a miss.

[buddha]

btw, raymond has been mostly awol when they needed him most.

again.

[lordstanley]

I'd give up a lot of prospects/picks for Auston Matthews this summer. Like, choose 5 assets other than Seider/Edvinsson/Raymond/DeBrincat/Larkin (fewer than 5 assets if one of the assets given is DeBrincat or Larkin). 2 more years left on his contract. 

[Shinzaki]

SY has become Joe Dumars...

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, buddha said:

copp has been good, compher was a big miss.  not replacing rasmussen was a miss.  not getting bigger up front was a miss.

Since Yzerman has been GM, I would say the only impact players has brought in outside the draft (i.e. trades and FA) have been DeBrincat and Gibson, and maybe now Faulk. Not going to give him much credit for Kane because it didn't look like there was much competition to land him at the time. In 7/8 years that's not much. Maybe count Chairot if you want to be generous.

Edited 14 hours ago by gehringer_2

[lordstanley]

35 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Since Yzerman has been GM, I would say the only impact players has brought in outside the draft (i.e. trades and FA) 

And I would say so far from his 7 drafts the only impact players he has brought in via the draft are his three top-6 picks of Seider, Raymond and Edvinsson. Obviously still time and hope for Cossa, Augustine, Kasper, ASP, MBN, Danielson, Finnie, Bear but question marks until proven otherwise at the NHL level. 

Edited 14 hours ago by lordstanley

[buddha]

2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Since Yzerman has been GM, I would say the only impact players has brought in outside the draft (i.e. trades and FA) have been DeBrincat and Gibson, and maybe now Faulk. Not going to give him much credit for Kane because it didn't look like there was much competition to land him at the time. In 7/8 years that's not much. Maybe count Chairot if you want to be generous.

and debrincat fell into his lap because he told ottawa he would only go to detroit or he would leave as a free agent.  hard to count that as a savvy deal.

 

[buddha]

we dont know what they offered other free agents.  in his defense, the big free agents didnt want to come here.

and honestly, if they had traded for quinn hughes - a dynamic offensive player but a small one - would it have made a difference this year?  i have my doubts...but 5x5 scoring has been so difficult for them and hughes definitely would have helped with that.

[buddha]

1 hour ago, lordstanley said:

And I would say so far from his 7 drafts the only impact players he has brought in via the draft are his three top-6 picks of Seider, Raymond and Edvinsson. Obviously still time and hope for Cossa, Augustine, Kasper, ASP, MBN, Danielson, Finnie, Bear but question marks until proven otherwise at the NHL level. 

three picks hitting in six years is not a great ratio.  and they were all top 6, you BETTER hit in the top 6.

kasper falling off the planet has been a huge disappointment.  to me he belongs on the first line as a winger, but rven when he's been up there he hasnt been great.

yeah yeah, he does other things.  well, we need him to score.  a little more cole caufield and a little less kotaneimi.

[gehringer_2]

48 minutes ago, buddha said:

three picks hitting in six years is not a great ratio.  and they were all top 6, you BETTER hit in the top 6.

kasper falling off the planet has been a huge disappointment.  to me he belongs on the first line as a winger, but rven when he's been up there he hasnt been great.

yeah yeah, he does other things.  well, we need him to score.  a little more cole caufield and a little less kotaneimi.

Has Yzerman forced any significant staff turnover since he's been here? I get the feeling he is too comfortable with with the staff status quo.

[Jason_R]

7 hours ago, Hongbit said:

Huge misses.  Don’t care if the contract AAV were good  or not.   These guys were not able to do what they were supposed to do.  They were brought in to solidify line 2 and they haven’t made that  happen now 3 and 4 years in.  

They haven’t helped the team take the next step to make the playoffs.   Contrary to accepted belief, they have actually tried to build a team to make it each of the last 4 years. 

If they were really signed as placeholders until the team was ready for playoff,  then why are they still on the roster now? Average guys filling a place signed to a 5 year term doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense.  They are in playoff mode and these guys are still here.  Copp has one year left after this and Compher two.  They were signed to be part of the move to the next step and they’ve underachieved at helping to do that. 

Fans may want to believe Copp and Compher were signed to help take the next step, and if that next step was from the basement of the NHL (17 wins, .275 points percentage in 2019-20) to the mushy middle, maybe those fans are right. But they were most certainly not signed to be the straws that stir the drink.

They are still on the roster because their contracts are not expired. I have said before, the market is the market, and the market means you pay too much in dollars and in term, especially if you are a basement dweller. It sucks to suck. 

They are also still on the roster because nobody has stolen their jobs. I’m sure there have been times where Stevie would have liked nothing more than to trade away Compher and even retain salary but he couldn’t because nobody was ready for his minutes. And they are still on the roster because Stevie was more realistic than fans about how bad the roster was and how long it would take for the kids to be ready.

They have done their job, which is to eat minutes and years for a rebuilding franchise.  There is no glamor in it, no glory, but the pay is good. 

[buddha]

10 minutes ago, Jason_R said:

Fans may want to believe Copp and Compher were signed to help take the next step, and if that next step was from the basement of the NHL (17 wins, .275 points percentage in 2019-20) to the mushy middle, maybe those fans are right. But they were most certainly not signed to be the straws that stir the drink.

They are still on the roster because their contracts are not expired. I have said before, the market is the market, and the market means you pay too much in dollars and in term, especially if you are a basement dweller. It sucks to suck. 

They are also still on the roster because nobody has stolen their jobs. I’m sure there have been times where Stevie would have liked nothing more than to trade away Compher and even retain salary but he couldn’t because nobody was ready for his minutes. And they are still on the roster because Stevie was more realistic than fans about how bad the roster was and how long it would take for the kids to be ready.

They have done their job, which is to eat minutes and years for a rebuilding franchise.  There is no glamor in it, no glory, but the pay is good. 

the alternative was to not sign middling veterans early and continue to bottom out.  to continue to accumulate draft capital.  yzerman didnt do that.  he said he didnt want a losing culture and instead signed a bunch of veterans to overpriced contracts: chairot, copp, and compher being the biggest three.

the mantha trade has not borne any fruit (despite the posts here, cossa has not done anything of note other than have the lowest gaa on this juggernaut team.  he may work out, he has given them nothing yet.)  bertuzzi got you the pick that got you debrincat.  kane is a nice novelty player.  

the core is seider/raymond/edvinsson/kasper/danielson/asp.  do compher and copp and chairot compliment that core?  maybe.  but not enough to make the playoffs 7 years in.

the pro-yzerman argument is that the wings were so bad under kenny that they were the worst team in modern nhl history with the worst farm system in the league.  this is true, but how long to dig out of that?  8 years?  do you give him another year?  two?  do you give him ten years?

again, the fear in refusing to bottom out for multiple years is that you end up in the mushy middle: never bad enough to get a star, never good enough to make the playoffs. i think those fears have been realized.

[buddha]

in defense of stevie, the wings have had horrible horrible bad luck.  

that said, montreal, ottawa, and now buffalo have passed them.  heck, pittsburgh is trying to lose and has passed them.  philly is getting nothing from its superstar young forward, is in front office disarray, and is close to passing them.

how long do injuries and dropping in the lottery and "no one wants to sign here" do we accept before it becomes obvious that this front office just doesnt have it?  are folks clamoring to sign in ottawa?  demanding to go to buffalo?  telling their agents they must look into all the good things about the ISLANDERS?

i doubt it.  but those teams ascend and we drop every time larkin gets a hangnail.  enough may finally be enough.

[gehringer_2]

38 minutes ago, buddha said:

the alternative was to not sign middling veterans early and continue to bottom out. 

the other aspect would he to have the cap space to make a big move when one was available, which in general they haven't had as they've burned their cap on guys who weren't going to get them over the line anyway.

[Jason_R]

1 hour ago, buddha said:

the alternative was to not sign middling veterans early and continue to bottom out.  to continue to accumulate draft capital.  yzerman didnt do that.  he said he didnt want a losing culture and instead signed a bunch of veterans to overpriced contracts: chairot, copp, and compher being the biggest three.

the mantha trade has not borne any fruit (despite the posts here, cossa has not done anything of note other than have the lowest gaa on this juggernaut team.  he may work out, he has given them nothing yet.)  bertuzzi got you the pick that got you debrincat.  kane is a nice novelty player.  

the core is seider/raymond/edvinsson/kasper/danielson/asp.  do compher and copp and chairot compliment that core?  maybe.  but not enough to make the playoffs 7 years in.

the pro-yzerman argument is that the wings were so bad under kenny that they were the worst team in modern nhl history with the worst farm system in the league.  this is true, but how long to dig out of that?  8 years?  do you give him another year?  two?  do you give him ten years?

again, the fear in refusing to bottom out for multiple years is that you end up in the mushy middle: never bad enough to get a star, never good enough to make the playoffs. i think those fears have been realized.

It’s easy to conclude that if they tanked their draft position would have been better and the rebuild would have gone faster but maybe not. How is it working out for Chicago so far?  And we know as well as any franchise that tanking is not a sure thing.

Looking back at Holland’s drafts is infuriating. It is astonishing how frequently and how badly he missed. A dozen players picked after Evgeny Svechnikov in 2015 outperformed him. Would you like to have Sebastian Aho right now? In 2016, Tage Thompson and Alex DeBrincat went after Holland picked Dennis Cholowski. In 2017 they could have had Martin Necas or Nick Suzuki instead of Rasmussen, not to mention trade targets Robert Thomas and Jason Robertson. We all know how Zadina worked out, and again we could not pull together a trade to get a player that Ken Holland could have had in the draft. 

Yes, it is easy to second guess draft picks, but if we are going to second guess Yzerman, we need to do the same for Holland. In most of these seasons Holland had his choice of multiple players who have turned into good to excellent NHL contributors. If Holland had even gotten two of these drafts right this year’s Wings would be a playoff team.