underslept

The Red Wings are dominating the league thus far this year. With 61 points through 40 games and a clear chemistry among the players, the Wings are currently the top team in the league winning 29 of their 40 games.

Yet despite the Wings incredible start to the first half of the season, they continue to struggle within their own division. Yes, they lead the division by 19 points, but their record within the Central Division sits below .500 at 6-7-2. The Wings are a staggering 23-1-1 against the rest of the divisions.

I find it odd that such a dynamically talented team can dominate so many teams and still struggle with the teams they see more often and should be better prepared for. I thought I'd pose this anomaly to you Wings fans, hoping you'd have some insight as to why the team struggles so much with its own division but completely dominates the rest of the league.

wingsnut19

I don't think it has as much do with not being prepared for the games, but that the others are more prepared than the Red Wings are. And you have to think that 3 of thoses loses to the Hawks were due a lot to inconsistent play by Hasek, rather than the entire team. Also, the last loss against the Blues can be credited to both a tough schedule over the last 2 weeks, and the fact that the Wings were missing both Zetterberg and Holmstrom, and it was obvious that the Wings were missing them in that game, and Datsyuk looked really tired. The only forward on the team that showed up for that game was Hudler.

Also, division rivals always come to play hard against Detroit, and now that those teams have improved, it makes it that much harder for the Wings to win. Also, usually if you watch the games, they are close losses, where they could go either way. So really, its not necessarily that the Wings play poorly as a whole, but rather either individual mistakes leading to losses (in the case of Hasek), or fatigue.

But, we don't want to take too much away from those teams. They all have great young rosters that look to be very promising over the next number of years. The Central is no longer an easy division, and I think soon enough with be the most competitive in the league. This is a good thing, because it makes for more entertaining hockey, and it better prepares the Wings for playoff hockey. Also, people can't use the "the Wings play in a weak division" excuse to explain their success. Its pure talent people, and good team management and coaching.

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Sig. credit to rbenares11.

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Dark Reign

I attribute that anomaly to the division being muhc, MUCH improved.

StLouis is back to form with room for improvement.

Nashville hasnt slipped as much as I thought they would.

Chicago owns Hasek. That, and 3 shorthanded goals in one game. Ridiculous.

Columbus is going to make the playoffs playing Hitchcock's trap.

But it is quite strange that the Wings are struggling in their own division. Odd indeed. Maybe its because the other team is extremely motivated to compete and win seeing as Detroit has owned the central for years. Or, is Detroit still not taking the central seriously enough?

I truly dont know. Anamoly indeed.

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Wingtory

Very weird that every speed bump Detroit has encountered is in the Central.

However improved the Central may be, its not a good enough explanation for what's going on. The rest of the Central is not dominating other divisions the way Detroit is.

I think that Central Division teams are fed up with losing and they certainly have motivation to step it up a notch against Detroit because of that. But again, its not enough of an explanation, because other teams have reasons to want to beat Detroit, too.

I think on one hand Detroit maybe had a little too much arrogance in November. I think maybe the Wings took winning for granted early on (and this combined with Hasek's iffy play....)

I think the other contribution was/is league parity. The Wings win a lot, but they also win close games. Sometimes, the 1 goal game goes the other way.