When The Playoffs Get Here, Who Will Be There In Detroit?

By Adam W Parks

The Red Wings roster has looked like a patchwork quilt this season with the loss of certain free agents, the additions of others, a slew of injuries, and a few fresh prospects from the Grand Rapids crew. Assuming that Detroit will get healthy and string together some wins down the stretch, they will certainly make it into 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

So what will that playoff roster of 23 skaters look like? Who will be in and who will be left out?

If healthy, the usual suspects will all be there, but who will round out that all-important fourth line? Who will act as the reserves to the top defensive pairings? Who has earned the opportunity to be this season's Justin Abdelkader? Here is a rundown of what a possible playoff game lineup might look like:

Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom
Franzen-Filppula-Bertuzzi
Cleary-Helm-Williams
Eaves-Draper-Miller

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Ericsson-Lebda

Now if all of the players listed above are uninjured, active, and still on the roster (could Drew Miller end up back on waivers?), then there will be five spots left to fill. On defense it seems obvious who will be there.

Feeling Peachy 'Bout Meechy

Wow, that was a lame headline. Apologies. Derek Meech may not see much ice time in the playoffs but he will surely be counted on as a backup. Though his statistics are unimpressive in 33 games this season (one goal, two points, minus-9 rating), Meech has played sound and solid in the wake of the injuries to Niklas Kronwall and Jonathan Ericsson. He has logged plenty of ice time this season, skating double digit minutes in 17 straight games and over 19:00 in four so far this season. With the lack of point shooters like Kronner and Jason Williams, Meech has logged plenty of power play minutes over the last month or so.

The 8-Ball

Jakub Kindl might be a future top four defenseman in Detroit, but Doug Janik looks to me to be the clear favorite, if not the most deserved, for the eighth blue-liner for the playoffs. Janik, 37, is a veteran who has never sustained a consistent NHL career, but he proved he can fill in admirably when called upon. In 13 appearances with the Wings he has as many points as Meech and a better plus/minus rating with a -3. (Ironically, Janik's last game with the Wings was the 0-6 rout by the Islanders, and he was a -3 in that game.) Janik was called up after Ericsson was lost and showed grit and toughness, amassing 18 penalty minutes with two fighting majors.

A Spot For Abby

Even though he was supposed to start this season wearing a Griffins jersey, Justin Abdelkader has secured himself a playoff spot. In all rights, Abby should have been a regular in the playoffs last year when he scored his first and second career goals in the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Penguins. It was the first time a rookie had scored in consecutive Finals games since 1981 when former Wing Dino Ciccarelli did it with the Minnesota Northstars. Forget that he has only three goals this season, Abdelkader is a gamer, a big game gamer, and a physical player with a scorer's nose for the net. He's a Michigan kid. Muskegon. East Lansing. Grand Rapids. Detroit. He has already been a hero once when it mattered most.



Can't Pass On Malts

There are four guys on today's roster that are leftover from the last four Red Wings Stanley Cup Championships: Nicklas Lidstrom, Tomas Holmstrom, Kris Draper, and Kirk Maltby. Drapes and Malts were question marks heading into this season, but loyalty runs red in Detroit, and each were brought back. Draper has shown positional flexibility to match his world class speed, moving from center to a wing position with Darren Helm. Maltby, 37, has held firm to his grinding wing position on the fourth line and has skated in 41 games this season, more than Patrick Eaves, Brad May, and Ville Leino. Never a prolific point-getter in the NHL, Malts has just three goals and five points this season and has been held pointless since Halloween (32 games), but it is his inexplicable talents on the penalty kill that keep him a valuable commodity in Detroit and a must have on the playoff lineup. Who knows where he will be next season, but I know where I want to see him in late April.

And Then There Were 2

So that rounds out 22 of the 23 available slots, and it comes down to a pair of players with diverse skill sets: Brad May and Ville Leino. If this writer were Mike Babcock it would not even be a question worth pondering. But I am not Babs, I am a writer, and I like to ponder...so here we go!

May Day-The off season signing of Brad May was reminiscent of when they brought in Dallas Drake for the 2007-08 season and subsequent championship. The Wings needed a peg to fill a tough hole. Voila. Brad May. At age 38, the man can still hang with the kids, and knock 'em out too. Now, fighting is a relatively unnecessary enterprise in the playoffs, but May also brings along Stanley Cup experience. He raised the cup in 2007 with the Anaheim Ducks and has played in 88 NHL playoff games with five different teams. Those kind of credentials are vital for a team that will likely be a statistical underdog without home-ice advantage in every round of the playoffs.

Lackluster Leino-What a disappointment this guy has been this season. With all the high hopes and anticipation Leino could have doubled his goals (4) and points (7) at this point in the season and I would still say he was underachieving. He was the guy that had us all saying, "See yah, Hudler! Don't forget to bring a sweater! I hear it gets cold in Russia!" Is there anyone out there that actually thought, before the season started, that Helm (8), Draper (6), Patrick Eaves (6), and Drew Miller (5) would have more goals than Leino? Shut up, you're lying. He had more goals (5) in 27 less games last season, and he has been a healthy scratch often due to a lack of hustle and strength on the puck. Players need to elevate their games in the playoffs. If Leino elevated his level of play right now, he might be a third-liner in Grand Rapids. Babcock has shown patience with him, citing Eaves as a similar wait and see situation/success story.

“Patrick Eaves is an example of a guy we were very patient with and he rewarded us for our patience,’’ Babcock said. “We’ve done that with a number of guys in my time here. We’re just going to keep being patient."

Fine, but for how long? Do any of the other guys who are hustling to loose pucks and grinding in the corners deserve to lose ice time to him? If, and that is a big IF, Leino can get his game together, he would be a valuable scoring option on a lower line, but as I see him right now, he would only be a liability and a waste of a roster spot in the playoffs.

Then again, the Wings need to secure that playoff spot before any of this becomes relevant anyway!

Peace.