Red Wings 1-14-15

The Red Wings' Henrik Zetterburg, Niklas Kronwall, Pavel Datsyuk, Gustav Nyquist and Justin Abdelkader have had a lot to celebrate this season.

(The Associated Press)

DETROIT - Many expected the Detroit Red Wings to be battling just to extend their playoff streak this season.

It turns out they have loftier goals. At the All-Star break, they're competing for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

Who could have seen that coming after an off-season with no free-agent or trade acquisitions?

"When I thought about around July 5 when not much happened this summer, I was disappointed, like a few of my veteran players who called me were disappointed, too," coach Mike Babcock said. "I don't think any of us would have believed we'd be at this spot, the general manager and myself included."

The Red Wings (27-11-9) have won five in a row and are tied with the New York Islanders for second in the conference, one point behind the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Red Wings have accumulated 13 more points than they had after 47 games in 2013-14 (20-17-10). Credit this to better health, continued growth of younger players and more consistent goaltending. This is a faster-skating team than it was a year ago.

"The contributions of players that were out a lot last year due to injuries has been a real positive, and then the continued development of younger players," general manager Ken Holland said. "When you're in the playoffs 23 straight years it means a lot of picking late, and we're trying to accomplish two goals at the same time -- make the playoffs and compete for the Stanley Cup. And we're also trying to rebuild the team on the fly."

The club has experienced only 111 man-games lost due to injury, compared to 412 during the 2013-14 season (second-most in the NHL), according to mangameslost.com. Their best players, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, were limited to 45 games each, and many other key players missed significant time.

Injuries enabled young players to step into key roles and most are playing just as well or better. Tomas Tatar (21) Gustav Nyquist (19) lead the way in goals, Riley Sheahan has developed into a dependable two-way second-line center and Danny DeKeyser has been one of their steadiest defensemen.

Jimmy Howard regained his All-Star from following an inconsistent season and, after he suffered a groin injury on Jan. 10, Petr Mrazek has stepped in without much drop-off.

"Our scouts have done a real nice job and obviously Blash (Grand Rapids Griffins coach Jeff Blashill) has done a good job in developing and then we've done a good job here," Babcock said. "Our assistant coaches have done a good job on the specialty teams (Tony Granato on the penalty kill and Jim Hiller on the power play)."

The Red Wings rank in the top 10 in all key categories: goals per game (10th), goals against (seventh), power play (second) and penalty kill (sixth).

"We're doing a lot of good things," Zetterberg said. "We've gotten better and got it going here. I think we're a little deeper.

"There's a long way to go and we have to keep winning games. Montreal and Tampa will win games, and Boston will win games. We need to keep playing well if we want to have fun in the end."

The Red Wings have capitalized on a favorable schedule featuring more home games and 13 instances of facing an opponent that had played the day before (Detroit has had only six sets of back-to-back games).

They will play 20 of their final 35 games on the road, including a grueling stretch (11 of 14) coming out of the break.

"When you're moving around all of the time, in and out of planes and buses it's sometimes tough mentally," Sheahan said. "But we have a lot of veterans, a lot of leaders. It kind of calms the team down and keeps us in a comfortable spot where we can play our own game."

Babcock's message following Tuesday's 5-4 shootout victory over the Minnesota Wild was they're in a good situation but must get better.

"We got to get our penalty kill back, our faceoff circle back and get everyone playing a little better," Babcock said. "I think the big thing right now is just get guys away and get them freshened up and get ready for a push."

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