Detroit Red Wings (NHL, 2018-19)

2018-19 Regular Season
Red Wings vs. Montreal Canadiens

     The Detroit Red Wings were in the early stages of a long-overdue rebuild in 2018-19. Years of attempting to extend their playoff streak (which reached 25 years) and poor drafting had left the farm system depleted and the roster burdened with bloated contracts. Due to these issues, the team had missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the past two seasons. The Wings played their home games at the 19,515-seat Little Caesar's Arena. Ken Holland was in his 22nd (and final) season as General Manager, while Jeff Blashill was in his fourth season as head coach. 

     The Wings continued their decline and slow rebuild in 2018-19, finishing with a 32-40-5-5 record. Their 74 points put them in 7th place in the Atlantic Division, 10 points ahead of last-place Ottawa but 54 points behind first-place Tampa Bay. Despite the record, attendance was at 19,121 per game, fifth-highest in the league. 

     The Red Wings offense was the tenth-weakest in the NHL that season, scoring 227 goals. Waterford native Dylan Larkin led the team in scoring, with 32 goals and 73 points. The only other 30-goal scorer on the Wings was Andreas Athanasiou, with 30 goals and 54 points. Only two other players had at least 20 goals that year, Anthony Mantha (25) and Tyler Bertuzzi (21). 

     The days of the Red Wings being one of the stingiest defensive teams in the NHL year after year was a distant memory by 2018-19, as Detroit surrendered 277 goals, fifth-most in the league. The team used three goaltenders this season. Longtime starter Jimmy Howard played 55 games with a 23-22-5 record and 3.07 GAA. Jonathan Bernier fared worse, with a 9-18-5 record and 3.16 GAA, but recorded the only shutout for the Wings this season. Kaden Fulcher saw the only NHL action of his career, playing 27 minutes and allowing 2 goals.

     Aging defenseman Niklas Kronwall led the team in offense from the blueline, scoring 3 goals and 27 points in 79 games in the final year of his career. Rookie Dennis Cholowski had the most goals on defense, with 7 (career high). The top plus/minus number was held by Tyler Bertuzzi with a +11, while the worst was registered by Cholowski, with a -20. 

     The Wings would miss the postseason for the third year in a row. As of 2025, they have missed the playoffs for 9 consecutive seasons, a franchise record. 2018-19 was simply a bad team, a mix of underwhelming youngsters and past-their-prime veterans. While there were a couple good young players (Larkin, Bertuzzi) and a couple that looked promising at the time (Mantha, Athanasiou), the Red Wings were clearly on the decline, and it was only going to get worse.

     This is a 68-page program, free of charge, for the January 8 game against the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens won, 3-2, to drop the Wings to 16-22-7 on the year. I bought this program at a yard sale in Peck a couple weeks ago. Muskegon native Justin Abdelkader is on the cover of this program and, in a way, he's a perfect example of the decline of the team. He had put up solid numbers early in his career, was given a big contract, but whose career was in steep decline by this point. The stats for the Wings and Canadiens are on pages 34-35, while the standings (as of January 6) are on page 36. The team roster is on pages 23 and 25, and the coaching staff is on page 27. There is an article about Michael Rasmussen, a 9th overall pick in the 2017 Draft who was in his rookie season that year. Rasmussen is by no means a star on the current team, but a dependable, gritty forward who can score between 10-15 goals. Pages 43-49 talk about the Stanley Cup and the removal of rings from the trophy and how legends like Ted Lindsay, Gordie Howe and Alex Delvecchio are no longer on the trophy. 

     Local advertisements include Little Caesar's, Bell's Brewery, SVS Vision, Corrigan Oil Co. and Kroger. 

References:

National Hockey League Regular Season Statistics: 2018-19, from hockeydb.com.