Red Wings Season Provides Fun & Optimism Despite the Stinging Conclusion
From The Silky Mitten State: Why 2023-24 was a fun season for the Red Wings, even if the ending was painful
"First of all, it was an exciting season," said Steve Yzerman to open his end-of-season press conference yesterday. "I think for us all a bit of a roller coaster. A lot of highs and some periods of a lot of losses and lows I guess. Overall, it was progress. After five years, more so than just the Red Wings, but the organization in general, I'm somewhat pleased. I can't say it's perfect, but somewhat pleased with the development of our organization, the play of some of our younger players not only in Detroit, but in Grand Rapids...and some of the younger players that haven't turned professional yet. Overall, I'm encouraged with the progress of our organization...I'm kinda disappointed, as most people are, at the end of the the season, because particularly the last week was incredibly exciting."
In that sentiment, Yzerman summed up a fundamental truth of the Red Wings season: it didn't end with the tangible marker of progress that the playoffs could have provided, but it was if nothing else, a fun ride to that stinging destination. Detroit was an exciting team to watch that played meaningful games until the bitter end. On the most recent episode of The Silky Mitten State, my co-host Connor Earegood and I discussed this dynamic—focusing on the way the Red Wings brand of hockey was far more exciting than we anticipated.
We also touched on the idea that there is a case to be made that ending the season with a win but not qualifying for the playoffs can provide momentum into next year that a first-round exit might have lacked. That's an idea that Andrew Copp touched on in his end-of-year presser, saying "In a certain way, for us to get seven out of the last eight points, it should be a confidence builder. Obviously you wanna make the playoffs, but for the last whatever, three or four games, we kinda controlled what we could control, and hopefully that's kind of a springboard. Let's say we went into a [playoff] series. Let's say we lost in six games. You lose the series, you lose the last game of the year, you're a little down, you made the playoffs, but you lost the last game of the year. We're not gonna have that reality check, so we should kinda be—I don't wanna say flying high—but we should have a little bit of confidence going into the summer that we won big games down the stretch."
You can catch a snippet of our conversation in the clip above. For the full episode, go to Spotify or Apple Podcasts:
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