From The Silky Mitten State: The road to the playoffs in 2025 might be a tricky one for the Red Wings, but it will have to involve become a stouter team defensively
"We scored a ton more goals this year," said Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde at his end-of-season press conference. "We went from 26th to 13th in goals for. Those goals helped us, but we want to keep pushing, and you hope to get over that line. I still think it's team defense and keeping it out of your net."
GM Steve Yzerman offered the same message 30 minutes later, saying "Ultimately, we have to become a better defensive hockey team, and it's the fundamentals of defending. I'm counting on our coaching staff to work with our players and our players to be determined to do that. It's not necessarily the system; it's the basic fundamentals of defending that at times this year we struggled with, and we need to address that again."
The day before, Yzerman and Lalonde's primary goaltender from the 2023-24 season, Alex Lyon, provided a different rationale for the same course of action: "I think every team in their maturation process comes to a realization that you can’t necessarily rely on goals all the time, and the ability to keep pucks out of your net is something you can control to a much greater degree.”
On the most recent episode of The Silky Mitten State, my co-host Connor Earegood and I discussed Detroit's need to tighten its defensive game to optimize its chances at qualifying for the 2025 postseason.
You can see a sample of our conversation in the video above. For the full episode, check out Apple Podcasts or Spotify:
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