The post Red Wings Brass Saw Red Flags Even When Team Was on a Roll appeared first on Detroit Hockey Now.
Even when the Detroit Red Wings found themselves looking down the standings at the rest of the NHL’s Atlantic Division, general manager Steve Yzerman wasn’t completely sold on his club being the real deal.
“Truthfully, throughout the course of the season as we watched, even when our record was pretty good, we had consistent concerns,” Yzerman said. “[Head coach] Todd [McLellan] and I talked about it as a staff.
“We’re winning games, but we could see the deficiencies. The areas that we need to improve upon.”
As the Red Wings fumbled away what seemed to be a certain playoff spot over the last two months of the regular season, those concerns rose to become deal breakers for this team.
“You’re never totally comfortable with your team, regardless of where you’re at in the standings,” Yzerman said. “We need to improve specifically in certain areas.”
Steve Yzerman admitted he isn’t shocked the Red Wings fell from where they were in the standings. “We had concerns,” he said at his season-ending press conference. He and Kris Draper saw flaws even through the winning."We were in third overall or something, and we're like,… pic.twitter.com/N5ay9bCp86
Then Yzerman proceeded to count how the Wings need to get better.
“We can talk about goal scoring,” Yzerman said. “We need to improve in that area, particularly five-on-five collectively. If you’re watching the playoffs, and I’m assuming, and I’m hoping our players are, they have to learn to play with the intensity and determination needed to be successful to make the playoffs and get there.
Yzerman also noted that the team failed to take care of home ice, a trait that all top teams share. Down the stretch of the season, Detroit won once over the club’s final seven home games.
“We had several road trips that were encouraging, only to come home and have a poor homestand,” Yzerman said. “Why that is, I’m not really sure. It’s something we’ve got to figure out.”
He was also disillusioned by the club’s inability to bounce back from bad breaks.
“You learn a lot in winning, you learn a lot in failure,” Yzerman said. “The ups and the downs, the failures, the disappointments, you have to learn from them.
“You have to adjust, and you have to be mentally tough enough to get through it. And that’s a challenge for a lot of our guys. But ultimately, it’s up to Todd and myself and our staffs to make these players better, prepare them better, make them harder, and also to improve the talent around them.
The GM also expressed concern about his team’s willingness to dig deep and display intestinal fortitude when things weren’t going their way.
“We need to be a harder team to play against,” Yzerman said. “We hear our players talk about that, and my message to them would be, guys, we need our team to be harder to play against. In order to do that, you guys have to be harder to play against. So either that or I’ve got to get ready and bring in other guys.
Detroit Red Wings LEGEND Darren McCarty on team being SOFT and Steve Yzerman making a move. pic.twitter.com/U8vmFY4MRO
— Woodward Sports Network (@woodwardsports) April 28, 2026
“So, we need to change some things, but it’s not just going to go and get rid of everyone. But there needs to be some very blunt conversations with some of our players, to challenge them to do more and be better and to get there.
“I can’t sit here and just say that, hey, these players are no good because we have a lot of good players. Having said that, I expect a lot more. You know, some players have very good seasons here, and some have had good seasons. I expect more from and to make the adjustment to playing not just down the stretch, but playoff-type hockey again.