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And then there were 14: Red Wings eliminated

Detroit Red Wings v Boston Bruins - Game Two

of the Detroit Red Wings of the Boston Bruins during the game at TD Garden on April 20, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

Jared Wickerham

For more entries in this series, click here.

It was a valiant effort, but the Detroit Red Wings are done in the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs.


  • Bruins fans won’t like this as it’ll sound like excuse-making, but health was a problem for Detroit all season. A less-than healthy Henrik Zetterberg tried to give them a spark in this series, but all season they had to deal with a host of guys being hurt. Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Jonathan Ericsson, Jimmy Howard, Johan Franzen. Just a laundry list of pain that almost forced Detroit to miss the playoffs.
  • It may sound nuts that depth was a problem for Detroit considering the injuries, but losing Ericsson made the Red Wings blue line dreadfully thin. The forward depth kept them going all season, but one key injury on the blue line proved to be a major problem late in the season and playoffs.
  • As great as Gustav Nyquist was in the regular season, he was silent against Boston. That said, the progress he made this season in establishing himself is something for Mike Babcock and Ken Holland to be excited about. He along with Tomas Tatar and Riley Sheahan showed that Detroit’s forward pipeline is still working fine.
  • As for Franzen, one offseason question for the Wings might center around what to do with him. His injury issues and streaky production have to be a concern to the front office and with compliance buyouts still possible this summer, it’s a question that might be worth throwing around in Detroit. Franzen has a $3.954 million cap hit through 2020.
  • Series-centric: Detroit’s penalty kill was less-than good against Boston. The Bruins power play was good, but are they that good? Either way, Detroit’s PK failed them when they needed to be great.
  • It may have been a fight for Detroit to make it to the playoffs, but you have to wonder if maybe they’re cursing themselves out for not finding a way to scrape together an extra point or two so they could’ve wound up in Pittsburgh instead of Boston. Que sera sera.
  • With the success the young players had this season for Detroit, a lot of the old jokes might get put on the shelf for a while next season.

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