Steve Yzerman’s eye-opening admission after soul-crushing collapse

The Detroit Red Wings are not in action during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But by all rights, they should be a part of the tournament. On January 25th, Steve Yzerman’s team was first in the Eastern Conference. In the end, though, they missed the playoffs entirely.

The story of Detroit’s collapse this season is a story told so many times before. Detroit was in a playoff spot heading into the month of March. Once the calendar flipped to March, though, they completely crumbled. It’s a story fans have grown accustomed to over the last three years. And it’s one that Yzerman foresaw coming, as he admitted during a press conference on Thursday.

“Truthfully, throughout the course of the season…we had concerns. (Todd McLellan) and I talked about it…we, as a staff. We’re winning games. We see the deficiencies, the areas that we need to improve upon – that probably goes for every team. You’re never totally comfortable, regardless of where you’re at. … We were third overall or something, and we’re like, ‘Let’s be realistic. I don’t think we’re as good as our record at the time, but we are winning games,'” the Red Wings general manager said, via Tyler Kuehl of Daily Faceoff.

Detroit heads into an offseason needing to make changes. McLellan made plenty a mention of players just being “jerseys” and guys not contributing during the course of the season. The Red Wings head coach was still trying to get the team to compete well into April.

Beyond that, the team’s scoring and defensive play was in question. There were standouts, such as Alex DeBrincat and Moritz Seider. However, the team was not consistent at either end of the ice. Yzerman is hoping to change that this offseason.

“Most obviously, we need better players…It’s incumbent on me and my staff to improve this team,” Yzerman said on Thursday.