The first week of the NHL season has already handed out a few cold showers, and three teams in particular have every reason to be looking over their shoulders.
Detroit, Chicago and Calgary have all opened the year with ugly starts, and the early returns have been rough enough to set off alarms in each market for very different reasons.
In Detroit, there’s no way to dress it up. The Red Wings are 0-2-0, and the mood around the franchise has turned sour fast.
Dylan Larkin was booed at the home opener, and the situation around him has only grown more dramatic: Larkin has demanded a trade, and the team has stripped him of the captaincy. The organization is already dealing with a major reset after franchise legend Steve Yzerman was removed as general manager and executive vice president in the offseason.
To make matters worse, defenseman Simon Edvinsson has also reportedly requested a trade. Interim general manager Shawn Horcoff now has to steer through all of it and try to put together a retool that gives the fan base some reason to show up at Little Caesars Arena.
Chicago isn’t exactly breathing easier. The Blackhawks are also winless, sitting at 0-3, and even Patrick Kane’s return hasn’t sparked the kind of optimism the fan base was hoping for.
Connor Bedard has been sidelined with a shoulder injury, though there have been positive updates on when he might return. For a franchise still deep in the rebuild, it’s another frustrating opening stretch, and one that has only sharpened the sense that postseason hockey remains out of reach for now.
The Blackhawks haven’t played in the playoffs in six years.
Then there’s Calgary, where the start has been brutal in a different way. The Flames were expected to have a tough year, but three straight losses and just three goals through those games is a bleak opening even by pessimistic standards.
The early numbers tell the story: Calgary has been outscored 16-3 in its first three games. The team has already put former first-round pick Connor Zary on waivers, and there’s not much reason to think the ride gets smoother from here.
The one bright spot on the calendar is next year, when the Flames will move into a brand new arena.
In Other News...
Red Wings Fans Just Got Another Harsh Free Agency Reality Check
Another free-agent rumor has left Detroit fans rehashing what might have been. The chatter around Steven Stamkos and the Red Wings picked up quickly, especially with the front office still carrying the weight of past speculation involving Dylan Larkins supposed trade list and Simon Edvinssons extension status. But the latest reporting from multiple NHL insiders points in a very different direction, one that puts the focus less on a missed opportunity and more on what was actually available to the team.
What stands out now is not just that Stamkos wound up in Nashville, but why Detroit never truly emerged as a serious factor. The conversation around the Red Wings has shifted from whether they were close to whether they ever made a comparable push at all, and thats a tougher question for a fan base looking for signs of aggressiveness. For a team trying to climb back into contention, every high-profile name that slips away becomes part of the larger story, even when the details suggest the real gap was bigger than most people assumed. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Front Office Shift Leaves One Big Question For Fans
The Red Wings front office overhaul has pushed Shawn Horcoff into the interim GM role after Steve Yzermans removal, while Dan Cleary has taken over as interim GM of the Grand Rapids Griffins. Detroit also shuffled several other familiar names into new jobs, with Kris Draper moving from amateur scouting to pro scouting, Jesse Wallin stepping up as director of amateur scouting and Mark Leach returning as a scout, a reset that gives the organization a very different look heading into the next phase.
Niklas Lidstrom remains vice president of hockey operations, and his role now includes added responsibility for European operations, alongside the continuing work of Niklas Kronwall and Hakan Andersson in Europe. The bigger question, though, is still unresolved: Lidstrom said he does not know whether Horcoff will be elevated from interim status to the full-time GM position, leaving Detroits next permanent move very much up in the air. [Read more 🡒]
Dylan Larkin's Return Doesn't Solve Detroit's Biggest Problem
Dylan Larkins season debut gave the Red Wings a jolt they badly needed, but it also reminded everyone why his situation has become so complicated. After missing the previous two games with an upper-body injury, the captain was back in the lineup against Ottawa and scored his first goal of the season, a timely contribution for a team trying to settle itself early in the year. His teammates showed their support, and the on-ice return at least gave Detroit a little more structure and energy in a spot where it has needed both.
The bigger issue, though, is that Larkins return did nothing to change the tension surrounding his future. Fans greeted him with boos because of his earlier trade request, and the awkwardness of the night lingered even with the win. Larkin has already made clear where he stands, and after the game he reiterated that he still wants out, leaving Detroit with a prominent star back in uniform but no real resolution to the problem hanging over the room. [Read more 🡒]