| 03 September 2010
From Khan(!) talking to Ken Holland about the down seasons from both Datsyuk and Zetterberg...
"We had lots of injuries, we had to tax them. Other teams could really focus in on those guys. For long stretches, we didn't have any secondary scoring. When you have more weapons, it takes the pressure off. The other teams can't just focus on Pav and Z. I think the extra month of training, the extra month off, is going to have our team's batteries recharged, but I also hope we have better luck with health. And the addition of Modano and Hudler, and some of our young kids up front having another year of experience, it's all going to add up to the potential for more offense, and from different sources.''
It makes perfect sense that your best players would have an off-season production-wise when the depth of the team suffers a rash of injuries. In a perfect world, you would want your starts to shine even brighter to compensate for the loss of the depth guys, but that's next to impossible when the opposition can spend more time concentrating on the few healthy producers that you have left.
Now that we're healthy again, and that we've added depth scoring, teams aren't going to be able to do that with Detroit again. And if Barry Trotz or Todd McClellan wants to throw their #1 defensive unit out there against Hank-Pav-Homer (aka the Flying Circus), then Filppula, Bertuzzi, and Franzen will go out there against a weaker unit and should have success.
We're not going to be a one-trick pony this year - far from it. Seeing as we have 20 goal scoring potential from EACH of our third liners this year, expect the scoring to be more spread around. And with a more eclectic scoring threat, that should open things up for #13 and #40 as well. So if the Euro Twins start clicking, look for them to put up big numbers this year.
"I think we'll be right there again, as we have been the last four to five years."--Henrik Zetterberg
