The Detroit Red Wings have suffered a lot this year, mostly from injuries. At one point, the Wings had nine of their 18 starters on the injured reserve and were forced into relying on rookies called up from the AHL.

Not only that, but they also started the season with goaltending trouble. Both Osgood and Howard had some of the worst save percentages in the NHL (both below 90%). Neither goalie was able to escape the questions that came up. Fans questioned Osgood’s age, as well as Howard’s lack of experience.

I can actually remember talking to one Red Wing blogger who said that he had completely given up on the Howard “experiment” as he called it. I’ll admit, I wasn’t too sure about Howard either. I thought that they should have kept Ty Conklin and gotten rid of Osgood. Conklin would have had a few more years than Osgood, and I didn’t think that Howard was ready.

As it turned out, I was wrong. Eventually, Howard started seeing more success, and is now a possible candidate for the “Rookie of the Year” Award.

However, I can’t blame the beginning of the season on the goalies, because defense was also a huge concern. In October, they were allowing an insane amount of goals and actually averaged 3.4 goals against per game. To me, it’s not surprising that they struggled. After all, the defense was a weakness last year for the Wings in the playoffs, and it was also a concern coming into this year.

As you can see, the Wings have faced a ton of problems, and all of these problems have contributed in some way to their current position. Right now, they are eighth in the Western Conference with one point on Calgary, and one point away from Nashville.

Recently, everything has turned around, most notably, Jimmy Howard. A lot of this improvement in skill has been from a jump in confidence. As he started seeing a little bit of success, he started becoming more confident, and as he became more confident he started seeing more success.

Just as importantly, the injured players have made their returns. The biggest return was Johan Franzen, who missed most of the season with a serious knee injury. However, many other players have returned as well, including Andreas Lilja and Niklas Kronwall.

It seems like everything good is happening at the same time for the Red Wings. They have a really good team, which has more talent on the ice now then it has had for the entire season.

Not only that, but they’re in the most desperate position they’ve been in for over a decade. When a team is in a desperate position like this, we usually see a much higher work ethic. That could certainly happen to the Wings, and it would make them very difficult to beat.

I said in my Western Conference Predictions that the Red Wings would finish in seventh place, and I’m sticking to that prediction. This team has a ton of talent, a confident goalie, and more incentive to win than most of the teams in the NHL.

My bet, is that we see the Red Wings in seventh place as they increase their work ethic, and finally bring the level of talent that they’re capable of. They could end up being one of the hottest teams in the NHL, and that would all but assure them a spot in the playoffs.

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