Why ‘DNA’ needs altering for Red Wings to move forward

DETROIT – In the post-mortem of the Detroit Red Wings’ 2023-24 season, coach Derek Lalonde focused on the team’s DNA.

It needs to be altered. No team can survive on offense alone. There must be a balance and the Red Wings didn’t find it, ranking 24th in goals against (3.33 per game). That’s not a formula for success, as close as they came to the playoffs.

I’m not going to say we sacrificed some defense for some offense but we had two 18-goal scorers on our fourth line,” Lalonde said. “We had a lot of guys throughout our lineup whose DNA was to score goals. We need them. There were a lot of nights we appreciated them, but you can also see a lot of our forwards, defense-first is maybe not their DNA. I give a lot of them credit that it became their DNA when they started caring about winning and playing for the team and playing the right way.

“We’re going to have to learn to improve defensively. I think there will be some growth within the group. You’d like to build around some defensive DNA. You look at the change we had in our group when (the line of Andrew Copp, Michael Rasmussen and Christian Fischer) took a lot of pride in shutting down some top lines. They produced some wins for us. Maybe a little more of that in our DNA.”

It’s a team issue that can’t be attributed solely on the defense or goaltending. The solution is a combination of personnel tweaks, a greater commitment to keeping the puck out of their net and perhaps some structural adjustments.