By Antoine Mathieu, Staff Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine

QUEBEC CITY, QC. — This is one prediction that could potentially bite me in the ass.

2014-15 EASTERN CONFERENCE predicted standings

1. Tampa Bay Lightning
2. Columbus Blue Jackets
3. Boston Bruins
4. Pittsburgh Penguins
5. New York Rangers
6. Montreal Canadiens
7. New Jersey Devils
8. Washington Capitals
9. Toronto Maple Leafs
10. Philadelphia Flyers
11. Detroit Red Wings

2013-’14 summary: Detroit Red Wings

Regular season record of 39 – 28 – 15, 93 points,  8th East, eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in five games.

I strongly believe that this is the year for the Red Wings. I know we hear that every year, but this is it! There has never been as many question marks surrounding the team. Their core has dealt with injuries as of late and they’re no longer in their 20’s. I’m aware that the Red Wings have an abundance of talent coming up but I’m not sure if it’s enough to compensate for that terrible defense of theirs.

But let’s a take moment to admire the Red Wings’ playoff streak, it’s been going on for 23 seasons, that’s ridiculous! Especially when you factor today’s salary cap and the parity in the NHL. A streak of that essence is a remarkable feat that in my opinion won’t ever be repeated by an NHL team. The ability to stay that relevant, year after year, speaks a lot of the winning culture in Detroit. But alas, all good things come to an end.

Talking about their culture, General Manager Ken Holland, has done nothing to improve his roster this summer. In a way, it’s what they should have done in recent years instead of signing guys such as Todd Bertuzzi and Mikael Samuelsson. The two of them were clearly past their prime and prevented the likes of Gustav Nyquist, Calle Jarnkrok (who finally asked to be traded), Tomas Tatar and Riley Sheahan to make the team.

Detroit has often been praised for the way they develop their prospects: they let them complete their Junior career, spend a couple seasons in the AHL so they can pay their dues and call them up for the NHL. The problem with that mentality as of late is that the prospects ‘developing’ in the AHL would be upgrades on some of their NHL regulars. Nyquist was ready a year ago but Holland decided to re-sign ‘his’ guys.

To his defense, Holland has built himself quite the reputation as a GM and rightfully so. He’s won three cups with the Red Wings and practically built a dynasty with them. The problem is that Holland is living off his reputation today. If you look at his resume in recent years, it’s nothing special. The signings of Stephen Weiss, Ian White and Mike Modano plus the Kyle Quincey and David Legwand trades are not what I’d consider excellent moves. And that’s without mentioning his loyalty problems for certain players.

I understand that Holland has integrity and is a man of his word; he told Daniel Cleary that he would give him a guaranteed contract after his current one and he did. But he has to draw the line between business and the emotional aspect of managing a hockey team. Cleary has regressed immensely in recent years and can barely remain healthy anymore. Why does Cleary get to stay with the Red Wings but Kirk Maltby and Kris Draper were both told that they weren’t good enough for the team anymore?

Many people will argue that if the Red Wings can make the playoffs with an injury depleted line-up, logically, they should be able to repeat it next season. Those people seem to forget that it took an epic collapse from the Toronto Maple Leafs for them to squeeze in the playoffs. I don’t think they’ll be as lucky next season with the emergence of other teams. The teams who were clearly worse such as the Sabres, the Panthers and the Islanders got better and won’t be easy wins next season. The teams at their level last year should also be better namely the Devils, Blue Jackets and Capitals.

Fans have to keep in mind that Henrik Zetterberg (will turn 34 years old in October), Pavel Datsyuk (36 years old), Johan Franzen (34 years old) and Nicklas Kronwall (33 years old) are all getting older and it doesn’t help that they’ve all dealt with pretty serious injuries in the last two years. Zetterberg missed the latter part of the season due to a back surgery, Datsyuk’s knees are starting to give out and both Kronwall and Franzen have experienced concussions.

The main reason that will lead to Detroit missing the playoffs for the first time since the 1989-90 season is without a shadow of a doubt their defense. When they are playing Kyle Quincey (who’s at best a number four defenseman) over 20 minutes a game, it says a lot about the depth of their team on the back-end. Thankfully, the Red Wings have many two-way players to compensate for that below-average group of defensemen. Darren Helm, Zetterberg , Datsyuk are among the elite in terms of defensive ability.

Unlike the Flyers, the Red Wings can count on an established top pairing defenseman in Kronwall but I don’t think that’s enough to compensate for that atrocity at their blue-line. The Wings have young defenseman like Brendan Smith and Danny DeKeyser who can hopefully change my perception of their group but with players that age, nothing is guaranteed. An injury can quickly derail a player’s career (see Michael Sauer with the Rangers) or they can peak early à la Michael Del Zotto.

It’s possible that the likes of Nyquist, Tatar, Sheahan and Tomas Jurco keep progressing but it’s entirely possible that they experience a sophomore slump. There’s no doubt in my mind that Nyquist won’t have as productive a season. His shooting percentage was 18.3 and he had fewer goals (five to be exact) in the AHL last season than in the NHL this season in practically the same amount of games.

I can’t emphasize this enough but Detroit’s playoff streak lies in the hands of Jimmy Howard. The American goaltender has to be at the top of his game for the Red Wings to have a shot at making the playoffs. Goalies have shown to be unpredictable throughout history (Antti Niemi, Sergei Bobrovsky and Semyon Varlamov all had great, but unexpected seasons in the last two years), so an excellent season from Howard is not impossible. One thing is certain though, he will need to be closer to his .917 percent career average than the .910 percent he had last season.

The Red Wings should have excellent secondary scoring with Stephen Weiss (who I expect to bounce back), Justin Abdelkader and Helm. It wouldn’t hurt the Wings chances if Daniel Alfredsson decided to comeback for one final season. The 41-year-old was the co-leader for the team in scoring last year and I’m sure with a healthy roster, could reach the 50 point mark.

Quick facts about Detroit:

• Their top players (Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Alfredsson and Franzen) missed 116 games last season.
• Detroit was the only playoff team last year to have a negative goal differential.
• Their leading scorer had 49 points, with a healthy roster, they should easily surpass that number.