The Red Wings' playoff streak is something to be proud of, especially for a young team in the midst of rebuilding its roster. But General Manager Ken Holland holds his players to a higher standard -- and this is when he evaluates who among them are worth keeping for the longer haul where the silver is buried.
And three young stars who were on Holland's no-trade list just a few months ago need to raise their game if they want to stay there.
The line centered by Riley Sheahan and flanked by Gus Nyquist and Tomas Tatar was counted on heavily as a second scoring unit in this first-round Stanley Cup playoff series with Tampa Bay. But heading into Game 3 Tuesday night (6 p.m. pregame, 7 p.m. face-off on FOX Sports Detroit), they have little to show for themselves.
Tatar has the lone goal among the three, though he appeared to be embarrassed when a point shot deflected twice, the second time off his shin and in to trim a deficit to three goals in Game 2's 5-1 loss. He gets extra credit, however, for getting to the net for such a deflection.
Nyquist has an assist. Sheahan is pointless. The group has 10 shots on goal and is a combined minus-3 for the series.
It gets worse with a closer look at their career playoff stats, especially for Nyquist, the 25-year-old right wing. He has 56 goals and 102 points in 139 games over the last two years, establishing himself as one of his team's most productive players. But in the postseason? Not so much. This is his fourth postseason, and in 27 games he has just two goals among seven points.
Tatar and Sheahan are playing in their second postseason. That dirty goal was Tatar's first point in seven games. Sheahan has played in seven games as well, and he's still looking for his first point.
As a unit, the so-called Kid Line has been something of a disappointment. Perhaps they'll get a boost from a change-of-pace expected when coach Mike Babcock juggles his lines with the return of Justin Abdelkader. That will allow Babcock to spread out his scoring threats by breaking up Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, a tandem that, with Darren Helm, has been Detroit's lone consistent threat in the past two weeks.
Datsyuk likely will anchor a line with Helm on the left wing and Tatar on the right. Zetterberg will center Abdelkader, who enjoyed a career year with 23 goals, and Nyquist on the right.
It's unlikely Babcock will mess with the Luke Glendening line, with Drew Miller on one side and rookie Landon Ferraro on the other. That unit not only has been strong defensively, it also spent nearly as much time in the offensive zone as the Datsyuk line.
Sheahan would drop to centering the remaining line, with Joakim Andersson on one wing and a pick 'em choice between Tomas Jurco (pointless in five career playoff games) and veteran Stephen Weiss, who has been largely ineffective -- or rookie Teemu Pulkkinen.
Babcock also has some options on defense, should he decide to give Alexey Marchenko a night off. Marchenko struggled on a couple of Tampa Bay goals in Game 2. He's a team-worst minus-3 in the series. Veteran Brendan Smith has been in the doghouse since drawing a penalty that arguably cost the Wings a game at Montreal last week, or Jakub Kindl, one of the Wings' most productive defenseman with five goals and 13 points in 35 games this season.
SPEED THRILLS
After playing the wily coyote to the Lightning's roadrunner in Game 1, when they were outshot 46-14 but still won the game, the Wings knew they had to find a way to match Tampa Bay's tempo.
They felt they did that, and then some in Game 2, when they looked like the faster team and spent a lot more time in the Tampa Bay zone. They had little to show for it, however, because of the way goalie Ben Bishop was playing. Though they lost, 5-1, the Wings left feeling a lot better about themselves.
"When you play against teams that can skate you find the game opening up a bit," said Helm, the fastest player on the ice in this series. "It's a challenge not to get sucked into that track-meet style of game where you're going up and down and kind of lose your defensive mentality of the game."
Early in Game 2, the Lightning added a degree of orneriness to its game, let by captain Steven Stamkos. His teammates said that heightened their team's sense of mission and catapulted them to a fairly easy win.
So the Wings will not only have to match Tampa Bay speed, but its intensity -- or this series will be over too quickly.
"We've got to hope we can stick with our game plan and get them off theirs, kind of break up their structure," Helm said.
