The Detroit Red Wings’ source of hope lies in the past.

They embark on a new season with the goal of getting back to the playoffs, hopeful that the misfortunes of last season won’t smite them again.

Odds are, they won’t.

Half the team underperformed in 2016-17, and the Wings were so inept on the power play they went three months without converting on the road. Injuries piled up in droves, forcing players to miss a combined 300 games.

“There are a lot of things that happened last year that were bad,” captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “There are a lot of guys in here that believe they can be way better than last year. I believe in the group in here. I believe guys will bounce back, our power play will be better. There are good young players ready to play bigger roles, and a lot of guys who I believe will have better years.

“I believe we will be a better team this season.”

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Zetterberg will find out soon enough if that’s true.

The Wings open the 2017-18 season Thursday night against the Minnesota Wild at Little Caesars Arena, their new home after playing at Joe Louis Arena since 1979. The Wings haven’t changed much since missing the playoffs for the first time in 25 seasons in April. The defense got an upgrade in Trevor Daley, but otherwise, it’s largely the same cast. And half of that cast includes guys who need to perform at a higher level.

The goals are defined: The Wings want to bounce back as individuals and as a team, make the playoffs and benefit from playing in their state-of-the-art new facility.

“It feels like a fresh start here at the new arena,” Zetterberg said. “We know that we have to be better. We want to be a playoff team again. I think everyone in here believes that we are a team that should be in the playoffs.”

Smile and swagger

Petr Mrazek might be the biggest source for Wings optimism. The 25-year-old goaltender seems to have benefited from a year of uncertainty, when he lost the starting job in Detroit and then at the IIHF World Championship in May. He was exposed in the expansion draft in June but was not selected by Vegas Golden Knights.

“I learn from the season that when things are not going your way, you have to stay positive and work hard and good things will come,” Mrazek said. “That’s what I was talking a lot about with lots of people over the summer, and I made a change in that. I talked to my fitness coach back home, my girlfriend, my family. All of those things that happened, when you put them together, you learn for the better.”

Mrazek has mended relationships within the organization, ones that soured when he bristled at participating in a "Toast for Hockeytown" charity event and no-showed at a morning skate in Ottawa. Mrazek said he wasn’t surprised he was exposed in the expansion draft “because of the season I had, but I'm happy I am back. I learn from mistakes; that won’t happen again.

“When you look to the future, you want to be positive. You want to work hard and do things right, and if you enjoy it and you like it, it is going to make you better and happier.”

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That attitude is a stark difference from last season, and perhaps is a sign he realizes the steps he needs to take to regain his standing with the Wings.

“He had so much success at a young age - the world junior championships, major junior, then the Calder Cup, being in the NHL at 21,” goaltending coach Jeff Salajko said. “Now all of a sudden when the tough got going a little bit, he had to dig in, and he did that this summer.

“He is really into video right now, and really into the gym -- things he didn’t do at all last year. He basically lost a year of his development in my eyes because he didn’t work hard enough and he didn’t buy into what we were doing.”

Mrazek owned some of the best numbers in the NHL midway through the 2015-16 season only to plummet into mediocrity. He finished 2016-17 with a .901 save percentage and 3.04 goals-against average in 50 games, ranking worse than 60th in the league in both categories.

His numbers this fall haven’t been any better, with a 4.02 GAA and .902 save rate, but he has looked better overall. Mrazek has moved well and made some highlight-reel saves despite playing mostly without the Wings’ regulars.

“The biggest thing for me is, he came in in shape,” Salajko said. “He put the work in this summer. He knew he needed to. He kind of slipped last year in the conditioning department. He came in, he almost lowered his body fat in half.

“He got on the ice a lot sooner and a lot more this year, which is something I encouraged him to do, to work on some of the technical aspects of his game. You can see the control now in his game.”

The Wings might be competitive if Mrazek can follow the pattern set by Jimmy Howard, who followed his struggles in 2015-16 with a career season. Howard, 33, finished last season with a .927 save percentage and 2.10 goals-against average in 26 games. His biggest issue seems to be staying healthy, though the knee injury that sidelined him 2.5 months last season happened because two players ran him over.

“We need elite goaltending,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “Jimmy when he was healthy last year gave us elite goaltending. Petr didn’t give us elite goaltending but he is very capable of elite goaltending. Petr has shown a great maturation process both in his mentality and his approach to how he trained this summer. He has put himself in position to have a real good year. So with him and Jimmy, we’ve got two guys who are poised to have real good years and we are going to need their elite goaltending to win.”

Eager to excel

Anthony Mantha didn’t sulk when he was a healthy scratch last season. Instead, he acknowledged he had to do better. He’s 6-foot-5 and 226 pounds, and when he skates to his potential, he can bulldoze his way to the net and score.

The Wings strategically put Mantha's stall next to Zetterberg’s in the new locker room at Little Caesars Arena, and one over from Frans Nielsen. Both are prime examples of players who compete every shift, every game. Mantha knows he has to be consistent to be good, and he has expectations for himself that reflect the bigger role he is being given.

“I had 17 goals last season, and I didn’t play all of the season," Mantha said. “I think this year 25 is something I am aiming for. That is the goal I have set for myself.

“I feel great. I am ready for a good year and I am ready to help this team win for sure.”

Blashill refers to Mantha as “uber talented.”

“He has taken great strides in the right direction every year I have known him,” Blashill said. “I told him for us to be good, he has to have a great year. He is going to play important minutes, so he has to have a great year. There is pressure involved with that, there is responsibility involved with that, but I think his maturity as a person and a player puts him in position to handle that pressure.”

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Likewise, Dylan Larkin looks like he is ready to carry more responsibilities after being tested during his second year of pro hockey. Larkin, 21, gained experience playing center last spring, and was especially effective at the World Championship.

“Larkin is somebody who went through a process last year where I was on him lots about a lot of different things to help his long-term growth as a player,” Blashill said. “He came out of it a better player and I think he is ready to have a big year.”

Larkin moved into a condo in downtown Detroit specifically so he “could live here,” referring to Little Caesars Arena. He went into exhibition play determined to prepare himself for a big season.

“My confidence is pretty high right now,” Larkin said. “This preseason I really tried to focus on treating those games like real games. Last year after the World Cup, I just wanted to come out and have fun and play hockey again. It kind of set me back a little bit. This training camp I really focused on playing the right way the whole time, and I think it is paying off.”

Larkin had terrific chemistry with Mantha during exhibition play, with the two of them pairing up to provide speed, size and scoring ability. Throw in Martin Frk, and they add the hardest shot on the team.

“Both my linemates, you just have to get them the puck,” Larkin said. “We have the puck a ton and I think we do pretty good in our own zone, too. Mo looks faster this year, he is stronger on the puck. It’s fun playing with him. I think he is going to have a big year. And I love playing with Frk -- he is good on the wall, and has a great shot.”

The three seemed to develop chemistry in one shift.

“With Frky having that shot it just creates chaos in front of the net, and me and Larks can play with the puck,” Mantha said. “Frky always knows how to get open and then have a great shot.’

A Daley dose for the defense

When free agency began July 1, the Wings took what little money they had and targeted the defense. In Daley, they got a smooth skater who can move the puck and play in any situation. Daley takes pressure off Danny DeKeyser and Niklas Kronwall because he’s another workhorse option on defense.

“I am a big believer in having a lot of guys that can play top-four minutes,” Blashill said. “It spreads the minutes and responsibilities across the board so if one guy is not having a great night, you don’t have to keep throwing him out there. The more guys you can have that can handle the other team’s best players, it lessens the responsibility across the board - especially if you don’t have a number one that is going to play 28 minutes a night, which we don’t.

“We are going to have to be a great d-corps as a group. Trevor skates great. His attributes complement the way we want to play. We want our D to break the puck out by skating, we want our D to get up in the play, and we want our D to use their feet to defend. He can do all those things. You can absorb injuries better when you have a guy like that, you can absorb off nights more when you have a guy like that.”

The Wings cycled through 12 defensemen last year. Nick Jensen took advantage of his opportunity and turned it into a regular job because of the way he skates and defends. The fact he finished with the second-best points-per-game average among the team’s defensemen, at 0.27, shows how little offense the Wings generated from the blue line.

“It’s still about playing defense because the quicker you play defense the more time you have in the offensive zone,” Jensen said. “So that is always my first focus. But I definitely want to be getting up in the play, trying to beat guys up the ice, making odd-man rushes. That is something I am going to want to work on this year for sure.”

DeKeyser needs to bounce back after a mediocre season, needs to move much better. Kronwall is battling a lot of hard miles on his body, and though his bad knee is giving him less trouble than last year, his health in general is a concern. Jonathan Ericsson does little things to break up plays and, at 6-5, is an option to use against big opposing centers. It is not a defense that will be among the top 15 in the NHL, but the addition of Daley makes it a little bit better.

A good finish demands a good start

Of the eight teams in the Eastern Conference playoff picture at Thanksgiving last year, six were still there at the finish line. If the Wings are to maintain a good rhythm -- they started 6-2, then won two of their next 11 games last season -- those who underachieved need to do better: The list includes Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, DeKeyser, Mrazek, Riley Sheahan, Gustav Nyquist, and Tomas Tatar, among others.

“We know how hard we have to work to get back to the playoffs,” Tatar said. “We have to pick it up as a team.”

Tatar finished with 25 goals but had just nine at the halfway point. Blashill doubts Tatar will have as quiet a first half again.

“You can say Tats didn’t score the first half of the year,” Blashill said. “No doubt. But he got chances the whole time. Sometimes as a goal scorer they just don’t go in. If he has those same chances the first half this year, they are going in. That’s what odds say. That’s why by the end of the year he did score, because he kept getting the same chances but they went in. Is 25 goals a great year? No. It is a good year. Can he score more? Yeah, he can score more, and I think he’s got the opportunity to do that.

“I think Abdelkader from Day 1 is going to be an important piece to our team. I am going to make him important and that is going to help him have a real, good year. Nyqui can add more goals than he did, but I also thought from a point total, he had a pretty good year. Can he be a little bit better? Yeah, and that is what I am saying from a group perspective, we all have to be a little bit better.”

The last couple months of last season saw the Wings play better as a team. They won seven of their last 14 games. Was it because the pressure was off with them being outside the playoff race? Or was it a sign the Wings may be competitive this season?

“You know, all you have to do is make little changes,” Blashill said. “We have to let less goals in, we have to be better on our power play. I believe our power play is going to be better - I have proof of that from the last quarter of the season.

“We were tied in the third period 50-some games last year. We didn’t turn enough of those into wins. We’ve got to turn a few more of those into wins and all of a sudden you are in the playoffs. That is the reality of it.”

Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.