Detroit Red Wings Review Week 1, January 14- 24, 2021
This season we will offer a weekly review of The Detroit Red Wings 2020-2021 season. Each review will be broken up into five sections: Broken Wings, which updates injuries for the week; Wing Movement, which updates transactions for the week; Games Review, Summery of game results for the week; Talking Hockey, my own take on the Wing’s play and what to expect for the next week of play and my pick for Player of the Week.
Broken Wings – The week started with Bobby Ryan (Unspecified Injury), Darren Helm and Christian Djoos (COVID protocol) out of the lineup. Ryan was activated on Jan 16, Helm and Djoos were both activated Jan 22. Robby Fabbri, Adam Erne, Sam Gagner and John Merrill (COVID protocol) were all moved off the active player list over the week.
Wing Movement – 1/21-Taro Hirose was recalled from Grand Rapids to the taxi squad. 1/22-Givani Smith activated (emergency conditions) from taxi squad.
Game Review – Red Wings played six games in Week 1 finishing with a 2-4-0 record for 4 out of 12 points. The week featured complete two game series against Carolina and Columbus and the first of two games against Chicago. The Wings lost the opening game in each series against Carolina, Columbus and Chicago and won the closing game in each full series.
Talking Hockey – This season is supposed to be a step forward in the rebuild for the Red Wings. Week one did not show that the Wings are going to take that step, but every opponent they played had taken part in the NHL’s Return to Play and were only five months removed from game action, compared to the Wings 10 months. The Wings rarely looked in control of games for longer than a couple shifts and seemed to be a step behind opposing players at every turn. The only positive on the week was the play of Bobby Ryan after he returned from injury.
Player of the Week – Bobby Ryan, Ryan scored finished the week with four goals in three games. He became the first player in franchise history to score 4 goals in his first three games with the franchise.