After a five-game road trip that saw Detroit pick up 6 out of a possible 10 points,

it looked like the Red Wings were happy to be back in Joe Louis Arena.

Detroit got two first-period goals on its way to a 2-0 victory against Boston on Tuesday night.

The first period was mostly a strong defensive effort from both sides and especially Wings goalie Chris Osgood. Neither team was able to get much of a rhythm going, and there must have been six stoppages in the first four minutes alone. Hits, shot blocks and nifty stick work defined most of the frame.

Henrik Zetterberg opened the scoring just two seconds into a first-period power play for the Wings. Despite Patrice Bergeron winning the faceoff for Boston, Zetterberg skated behind him and took a slap at the puck while it was on its side.

Boston goalie Tim Thomas barely saw the puck fly past him.

Two amazing passes contributed to Detroit’s second goal. Todd Bertuzzi took his time and looked down the ice before launching a puck to Pavel Datsyuk just in front of the blue line. The puck bounced off the Russian’s stick, and he decided to flick the puck behind him to avoid the three Bruins chasing him.

Thomas came out of the net as well, and Tomas Holmstrom had a wide-open target to shoot at for his eighth goal of the year.

After that, it was all defense. The Red Wings stopped a Boston power play the third period, but the Bruins were kept relatively quiet.

All that worked out to generate Osgood’s first shutout of the season after he made 26 saves.

Things still aren’t perfect in Hockeytown, but Tuesday night’s team looked a lot like one that can go deep in the playoffs. The defense was outstanding, the power play connected and the penalty kill was flawless. There’s plenty of time, but it appears the Wings are moving in the right direction.

Five more observations:

1. The new guy. Doug Janik played his first game for Detroit after being called up from Grand Rapids before the game. He’s wearing the No. 37 jersey, Mikael Samuelsson’s number from last season. He logged nearly 14 minutes of ice time.
2. Huge kill. The Bruins had a third-period power play that Detroit completely blanketed. Boston had the puck in the offensive zone for more than the entire first minute and never got a clear shot away.
3. Thank you, come again. Tuesday night was Detroit’s only game against Boston this season. The next time these teams could theoretically meet? The Stanley Cup finals. The next likely meeting? Some time in 2010 or 2011 in the TD Garden. They haven’t met in the playoffs since 1957.
4. Boston’s winning ways. Overheard an interesting stat on the play-by-play: Boston is the only team this decade to have a winning record against Detroit. How about that? Didn’t matter on Tuesday night, however.
5. Lineup of backups. No Brad May, no Brian Rafalski, no Jonathan Ericsson, no Valtteri Filppula. Instead, Detroit did fine with Jarik, Derek Meech and Justin Abdelkader.

Player of the game: Osgood. Congrats to the veteran goaltender on his first shutout of the season and 50th of his career.

Word of the game: Homecoming. The Red Wings fans were clearly happy to see their team back in Detroit for the first time in two weeks. The Wings responded with a 2-0 blanking of boston.

Up next: San Jose, Thursday, 7:30 p.m.

Things weren’t looking good for Detroit on Tuesday night against Vancouver, as Chris Osgood was pulled after giving up two goals on four shots faced.

But then, something strange happened: The Red Wings were on the opposite end of a blown lead.

Rallying back from two goals down, Detroit got a first-period goal from Tomas Holmstrom and then four goals in the third period to win 5-4.

A comeback. A victory. On the road. How about that?

In what wound up being a thrilling contest for those few who stayed up to watch on the east coast, perhaps the most promising sign of the night was the two goals from Pavel Datsyuk.

The Russian is one of the two most important players on the team as far as offense is concerned (Henrik Zetterberg being the other), and he had been without a goal this season before Tuesday night. Datsyuk picked up his first two goals of the season in a three-minute span to give Detroit a brief 4-3 lead.

He also tallied an assist and ended the game with three points.

Jason Williams tapped in the game winner on a power play, and the Wings managed to hold the 5-4 lead for the last four minutes.

Jimmy Howard played very well in relief of Osgood, and that’s a good thing for the future. Osgood had an incredibly off night, but Howard was able to come in and bend just little enough for Detroit’s offense to salvage two full points from the game.

Tuesday was an uncharacteristically bad night from Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo as he let in five goals on 42 shots. To be fair, two of those goals were on Detroit power plays, but this is the man who had given up six goals in his last five games combined.

All in all, a very exciting game for both sides, though Detroit made Vancouver’s fans leave the arena unhappy. Could this be a sign of things turning around in Hockeytown, or was this just a one-game thing for Detroit’s offense?

Five more observations:

1. Ryan Johnson took a nasty slide into the boards in the second period and had to be carted off the ice on a stretcher. Let’s hope he’s alright, as his shoulder slammed into the boards very hard.
2. Filppula draws key penalty. Valtteri Filppula should be credited with drawing the penalty that turned into Datsyuk’s second goal. He burst through three Canucks and would have gotten a shot off on Luongo if not for Kevin Beiksa hooking him. That penalty set up Datsyuk’s second goal of the period. Filppula also got the primary assist on the game-winner from Williams.
3. Schneider says hello. Former Wing Mathieu Schneider scorched home Vancouver’s third goal of the night on a play very familiar to Detroit fans of the past. He was making those slap shots from near the blue line plenty during his four seasons in Hockeytown.
4. Homer right at home. Holmstrom scored Detroit’s first goal and was instrumental on their third and fourth goal, pestering Luongo with his presence in front of the net. There’s no one better in the NHL at that.
5. Road relief. Not only was the victory Detroit’s first in four games, but they also notched their first road victory of the season. They needed to get out of that funk bad.

Best of the Wings: Datsyuk. His first two goals of the season and an assist make him the best Wing on the ice, though it was close between him and Holmstrom.

Worst of the Wings: Osgood. The veteran faced four shots and allowed two goals before being removed. Another simple call tonight.

Word of the game: Relief. The first road win and first win overall in nearly two weeks. This must be a huge weight off the players’ shoulders.

Up next: Thursday, at Edmonton, 9:30 p.m.

The Red Wings shot plenty on Saturday night in Colorado, but instead were met by a brick wall of a goalie.

Avs netminder Craig Anderson stopped 48 of 49 shots fired his way to completely stymie the Red Wings.

One goal — a Kris Draper backhanded shot after he did his best Tomas Holmstrom impression — wasn’t enough for Detroit, and Colorado blasted two of its 23 shots past Jimmy Howard for a 3-1 victory.

At one point in the first period, Holmstrom had a wide open chance on the power play.

He calmly stuffed the puck into Anderson’s pads.

One period later, while shorthanded, Dan Cleary had a similar amount of time to just walk into Anderson’s face with the puck, and the Avs goalie calmly stuck out his stick to poke the puck away. Some nights, you’re just facing a hot goalie.

Later in the period, Pavel Datsyuk had a free skate into Anderson, but the goalie came out on top.

Plenty of chances for Detroit, not enough success.

To quickly harp on the point of the last two games, yes, Detroit did blow another lead against Colorado. This one, however, was a one-goal lead with still 20 minutes to play.

The lead wasn’t one goal with three minutes left or two goals with 20 minutes left. A one-goal lead in the second period is a tenuous lead at best.

It’s still bad to have a lead and lose it, but the problem Saturday was Detroit failing to add a second goal, not their inability to keep a lead.

Five more observations:

1. Homecoming not coming soon. With this loss, Detroit is still winless away from the Motor City this season. They have been outscored 21-11 in those games.
2. It’s been a while, Kyle. Former Red Wings draft pick (132nd overall in 2003) Kyle Quincey got leveled by Darren Helm early in the first period. Quincey spent the first six years of his career in the Wings’ system but only managed one goal in 13 regular-season games in all that time.
3. Turnovers are deadly. The Avs’ first goal, from T.J. Galiardi, was set up by one of those terrible clearing attempts that wound up right in the attacking team’s hands. And the shot Galiardi sunk was the exact shot Anderson was saving all night.
4. Foote soldier. Adam Foote is still on the Avs’ roster as the only player from their 1995-96 Stanley Cup Championship team. I remember hating him all the way back then. From the 2000-01 Cup team, the Avs still have Foote and Milan Hejduk.
5. Bertuzzi denied. The hockey gods were not smiling on Todd Bertuzzi on Saturday. The left winger had an apparent goal in the second period waved off by the referee because he couldn’t see the puck under Anderson and in the net. In the third period, Bertuzzi clanged one off the post that would have given Detroit a 2-1 lead. Ironically, Chris Stewart’s game-winner less than five minutes later went in off the post.

Player of the game: Anderson. The Avs’ goalie was phenomenal Saturday night, stopping 48 shots. That’s a huge number usually reserved for a Florida Panthers goalie.

Best of the Wings: Draper. The lone goal-scorer on a bad night for Detroit.

Worst of the Wings: Valtteri  Filppula. The poor guy. He was on the ice for all three Colorado goals and finished the game at -3, the only Detroit player with that honor.

Word of the night: Stonewall. Anderson’s performance was off the charts and reminded me of the old Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey graphic where the goalie would literally turn into a brick wall when stopping shots.

Up next: At Vancouver, Tuesday, 10 p.m.

Tomas Holmstrom and Brett Lebda scored to give Detroit a 2-1 lead, and then the wheels slowly fell off late.

Controversial or not, Phoenix tied the game with less than three minutes remaining because the Coyotes crowded the net and Chris Osgood had no idea where the puck was.

Not Osgood’s fault, just great rushing to the net and confusion generation by Phoenix.

The game winner? Much more on Osgood’s shoulders. Adrian Aucoin sped into the offensive zone down the right boards and flung a shot toward the net, a shot that normally has little chance of going in. Osgood had a clear view of the puck, but it somehow deflected off his stick and went into the net just two minutes into overtime.

Final score: Detroit 2, Phoenix 3 in Jobing.com Arena.

Those are the kinds of goals in hockey that make me wonder why teams don’t do as much shooting when they’re in the offensive zone. So often, teams will carry the puck and do a lot of fancy passing to fake out the goalie.

In this case, like countless others, just throwing the puck willy-nilly at the net was all it took for Aucoin to send the fans home happy. Throw the puck at the net, good things happen.

Blown leads are becoming Detroit’s signature this season. I wrote after Saturday’s loss to Colorado that I would be expecting plenty of blown leads in the future. It only took one game for that to be true.

In good news for Detroit, Pavel Datsyuk was back in the lineup and played very well for the first time all season. He picked up two assists in the game and now has four on the season. Him and Henrik Zetterberg were on fire with assists in the game, as Zetterberg took the second assists on both Detroit goals.

Three more observations:

1. Road woes. The Phoenix game was the first of five straight road games in the Wings’ longest road trip of the season. Detroit is now 0-3-1 away from Joe Louis Arena this year and has been outscored 18-10 in those games.
2. Shoot the puck! Usually a rarity in seasons past, the Coyotes outshot the Red Wings 33-27 in the game. Detroit is averaging 30.2 shots per game this year (16th in the league) against 29.8 for their opponents. For comparison, the Red Wings’ numbers from last year were 36.2 (1st in the NHL) against 27.7 (2nd), and their 2007 numbers were 34.4 (1st) against 23.5 (1st).
3. Laying low. Former Wing Robert Lang had a quiet night for Phoenix, shooting twice but not recording another stat in his 15:37 of ice time.

Player of the game: Aucoin. He assisted on the Coyotes’ first goal and score the game-winner in overtime. Simple enough.

Best of the Wings: Datsyuk. First assists on both Red Wings goals, and that pass to Lebda for his goal was beautiful.

Word of the game: Motif. As in, blown leads will be the motif of Detroit’s season. They’re the recurring theme, the story arc, the unifying piece to the early part of the year.

Up next: Saturday, at Colorado, 9 p.m.

I had planned to extol the virtues of Justin Abdelkader, who got his first regular-season goal in the first period. I had planned to praise Chris Osgood for buckling down and playing a complete game. I had planned on complimenting Detroit on a solid defensive effort.

Imagine my surprise when I turned on my computer at home and saw the headline “Detroit squanders early lead, loses shootout” on The Detroit News’ Web site.

As it turns out, Detroit allowed three third-period goals from the Avs, all in the last 11 minutes, and then scored one of its own to send the game to overtime. For the fourth straight time (dating back to February 15), Detroit lost a shootout and dropped the game 4-3 to the Avalanche. Their last shootout win came on February 2.

Losing leads has become a serial problem for Detroit. It’s still early, but this team will not go far in the playoffs without the ability to hold a lead. For two and a half periods, everything was great. Abdelkader and Todd Bertuzzi got the ball rolling. Then came the late-game collapse.

I fully expect more of this as the year wears on. A chance for two points against one of the Western Conference’s top teams goes down the drain tonight.

Now, to briefly extol the virtues of Justin Abdelkader as planned: The youngster has a chance to be a great Red Wing. Drafted in the second round after winning the Most Oustanding Player Award at the 2007 Frozen Four — he scored the game-winning goal for Michigan State — Abdelkader made a huge impact in last year’s Stanley Cup Finals.

He was the first rookie to score goals in two straight finals games since another former Red Wing, Dino Ciccarelli, did that in 1981 for Minnesota.

Now he’s getting his chances to play thanks to Johan Franzen’s injury, and the Red Wings will be better for it. He was doing little good at Grand Rapids. His first regular-season point came Thursday, and his first goal came tonight. Congrats, Justin. Hope you stay awhile.

Five more observations:

1. Welcome to Detroit, Todd. New winger Todd Bertuzzi scored his first goal as a Red Wing this season in the second period. It came early in the period after a power play carried over from the first.
2. Home-ice fails. Detroit’s previous three losses on the year came on the road. This was the Wings’ first loss at Joe Louis Arena.
3. Variety is the spice of life. The Detroit goals came from three different players. The five assists were also spread among five players. Good to see production from more than one line.
4. May gets physical again. Brad May has played in four games this season and has gotten into two fights. I haven’t checked the stats, but that might be twice as many fights as Detroit got in all of last season.
5. Power outage. Detroit could have put the game away with a four-minute power play early in the third period, but instead went without a score and left the window open for Colorado to get back into the contest.

Best of the Wings: Abdelkader. His first career goal and just one shot to try it.

Player of the game: Cody McLeod. The Avs third-year left winger score Colorado’s first and third goal in the game, energizing the team and sending them to their shootout victory. He also won the fight with May pretty handily.

Word of the game: Collapse. Fairly straightforward.

Next up: At Phoenix, Thursday, 10 p.m.

Tonight, Lidstrom’s assist on what would be the game-winning goal from Henrik Zetterberg put him at 1,000 career point.

To him, it’s probably just another trophy in the case. But he earned a standing ovation from the crowd at Joe Louis Arena, and he responded with a nice curtain call of sorts from the bench.

His individual performance shined bright in Detroit’s 5-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings, but the team as a whole really responded strongly after a brutal 6-2 loss to Buffalo two nights earlier.

Despite letting in a first-period goal and going down one, Jonathan Ericsson put a slap shot past Jonathan Quick to start the second period, and the Detroit scored the next two goals (from Tomas Holmstrom and Zetterberg).

Those three consecutive goals put the Red Wings ahead for good despite a Kings goal with about eight minutes remaining in the game.

Kirk Maltby made a terrific individual effort in creating his own goal for the clincher with five minutes left, and Brian Rafalski put home an empty-netter with just seven seconds on the clock.

Chris Osgood might have had his best game of the season, stopping 24 of 26 shots and holding strong after allowing an early goal. The Kings, who had started out to a hot 4-2 this year, are now 0-4-1 in their most recent meetings with Detroit.

Detroit moves to 3-3-0 on the year with 6 points and a firm hold on third place in the Central Division. Chicago, on a four-game winning streak is still in first, with Columbus in a surprising second.

Five more observations:

1. Two for the show. In Detroit’s three wins this season, they’ve allowed just two goals each time. That seems to be the number they’ll have to stick to for victories. Their three losses saw four, five, and six goals hit the twine.
2. Home cooking. The Red Wings’ three victories have also all been in the friendly confines of Joe Louis Arena. The two games in Sweden and a trip to Buffalo ended in defeat.
3. Abdelkader gets on board. Since replacing the injured Johan Franzen in the lineup, after the Chicago game last week, Justin Abdelkader hadn’t put a point on the board. Thursday night, he assisted on Ericsson’s goal in the second period by winning a faceoff clean.
4. Saved by the glove. The Kings could have gotten off to an even faster start, but Osgood was able to put a glove on a puck that bounced off the post and into his back, then started moving toward the goal. Quick handiwork by Osgood kept the Kings off the board temporarily.
5. Holmstrom on fire. The veteran’s goal was his fourth of the season, and he is surprisingly in front of all Red Wings scorers. The tip-in tonight was a perfect example of Holmstrom being the best front-of-net scorer in the NHL. Still not on the board: Pavel Datsyuk.

Best of the Wings: Lidstrom. His two assists were huge in the second period, and he broke 1,000 points in his career.

Word of the game: Milestone. For Lidstrom’s 1,000th point.

Next up: Saturday vs. Colorado, 7 p.m.

Saturday was the team’s chance to make up for Friday’s defeat, and instead Detroit was soundly beaten once again by St. Louis in Stockholm, this time by a 5-3 margin.

Things were looking great for the Red Wings when Tomas Holmstrom and Dan Cleary got goals in the first 2:08 of the game. But once the Red Wings’ penalty kill got going, the lead evaporated. 2-0 in favor of Detroit became 2-2 quickly, and then 3-2 in favor of Detroit thanks to a Niklas Kronwall tally became a 5-3 loss.

Three of the Blues’ five goals were on the power play, and Detroit’s penalty kill percentage through two games is a dismal 55.6 percent, good for 27th in the NHL.

Backup goalie Jimmy Howard — in for Chris Osgood solely because of the back-to-back nature of the games and not because Osgood’s performance Friday was weak — did little to show why the Red Wings didn’t sign a bigger name backup goalie in the offseason.

It’s a small sample size, I know. It’s incredibly early, I know. But the goaltending and penalty kill has been lacking so far this season.

Maybe the Wings can use some home cooking. The Sweden appearance was a disappointing one for a team so laden with players from that country. Time to get back to the States and get some points on the board.

Five things:

1. Veterans days. Both Blues wins were punctuated by two-goal outings from seasoned veterans. Friday saw Paul Kariya hit the twine twice, and then Saturday featured two scores from Keith Tkachuk.
2. New Wings contribute. Todd Bertuzzi and Jason Williams got onto the scoresheet Saturday with an assist each. Welcome to Hockeytown, boys.
3. Ericsson plays. After scoring a goal Friday and then leaving the game with an ankle injury, defenseman Jonathan Ericsson wasn’t expected to play Saturday. He wound up playing more than 18 minutes in a move that even shocked Red Wings coach Mike Babcock.
4. Eaves still out. The forward hasn’t made an appearance for Detroit in two games, as he was a healthy scratch for the second game in a row.
5. Zetterberg and Cleary make the scoresheet. So you can cross two names off the list of big Wings who don’t have points this season. Still on the list, though, are Pavel Datsyuk and Nick Lidstrom.

Best of the Wings: Henrik Zetterberg. He notched two assists on the game.

Worst of the Wings: Howard. For the second day in a row, this goes to a Wings goalie. Three of the goals he gave up were shorthanded, but five is way too big a number.

Player of the Game: Tkachuk. His two goals wound up being the margin for St. Louis.

Word of the Game: Whiplash. The Blues evaporated the Red Wings’ 3-2 lead seemingly instantly when Brad Boyes and Patrik Berglund scored 13 seconds apart in the second period. Back-to-back goals like that are devastating for a hockey team and leave them wondering what went so wrong.

Up next: Thursday vs. Chicago, 7:30 p.m.

Well, after writing last night that Ty Conklin was better than Chris Osgood in net for the Wings last regular season, Osgood did us all the favor of remind us why in Detroit’s season-opening 4-3 loss to St. Louis in Stockholm on Friday afternoon.

The Detroit netminder faced an ungodly barrage of shots (extreme sarcasm) against the Blues — 23 shots to be exact — and let in four of them. That makes his save percentage for the season already a dismal .826. Yikes.

His opposite on Friday was Chris Mason, who showed agility and quickness with the glove, stymying multiple Red Wings with his handy glove work.  On one shot in particular in the third period, Mason saved what would have been the tying goal off Johan Franzen’s stick after some beautiful dekeing and a great pass from Pavel Datsyuk.

Despite all that, Detroit was the better team for the first half of the game. After going down a goal early, Kris Draper got some help from referee Bill McCreary (thanks, Bill!) on a screen and Jonathan Ericsson was there to clean up a rebound on a wide open net.

Then Kirk Maltby was there for a breakaway shorthanded goal, the 125th of his career. Red Wings fans have to love seeing that effort from the veteran. Follow that with an early second-period goal from Ville Leino on the power play, and it looked like Detroit was going to cruise to an easy victory.

That’s when the penalty kill reverted to last year’s form and Osgood coughed up the game. A scoreless third period sealed the deal for Detroit.

Of course, it’s not all bad. The Red Wings got three goals from people who aren’t expected to score every night. Johan Franzen played aggressive hockey and took a couple penalties. The Wings scored on the power play and shorthanded. Justin Abdelkader showed he’s worth a roster spot sooner than later. But in the end, the game goes down as a big, fat zero in the standings.

Five things:

1. Paul Kariya is still alive? Not only is the 34-year-old (he turns 35 in two weeks) still alive, but he scored the 2nd and 4th Blues goals, giving them the victory. Didn’t expect him to put two past Detroit today.
2. The Blues might be for real. I spent yesterday’s season preview talking about how Chicago would overcome Detroit in the Central Division, but I neglected to think St. Louis had any chance. One day into the season, it’s the Blues on top, and Mason looks like he’s going to continue his stellar play from the end of last year.
3. So much for the focus on defense. Four goals allowed is not going to win games for the Red Wings this year. With Ericsson leaving in the second period with an injury, the Wings’ remaining five defenders helped Osgood get rid of the game.
4. Where are the stars? Detroit goal scorers were Ericsson, Maltby and Leino. Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen and Tomas Holmstrom went pointless.
5. The problem with first impressions. New wings Todd Bertuzzi and Jason Williams had a combined six shots and little other impact on the game. Patrick Eaves was a healthy scratch.

Best of the Wings: Maltby. Along with his shorthanded goal, he earned an assist on Ericsson’s first goal. He was the only Detroit player with two points.

Worst of the Wings: Osgood. See above. Let’s hope he reverts back to playoff form soon.

Player of the game: Kariya. He got St. Louis back in the game with his first goal and won it with his second. His wrist shot is still incredibly accurate, and the way he drags it out before shooting froze Osgood twice.

Word of the game: Rust. As The Detroit News’ Chris McCosky pointed out, Zetterberg and Dan Cleary were both -2 for the day after missing most of training camp with groin injuries. The defense was stagnant, the power play was ineffective, and Osgood’s performance left something to be desired. For today, we blame it on the offseason.

Up next: At St. Louis in Stockholm, Saturday, 3 p.m.

First, I’ve gotten a gig at The Miami Herald covering Broward County high school sports. I’m mostly doing football and golf in the area, but there’s some swimming and other sports in there as well. It’s fun to cover kids so young, especially because the harsh business-like aspect of sports that comes in during college hasn’t hit these kids yet. It’s sports at its purest.

Second, I’ve become borderline obsessed with English league soccer, my team of choice being Arsenal. Why this is, I’m not quite sure. It might have something to do with only baseball dominating the summer and soccer in England starting up a full month before college or pro football. It’s gotten so bad that I’m streaming games online and am one click away from buying an Arsenal away jersey. The dark blue looks really nice.

And, more relevant to this blog, on the hockey front, The Detroit Red Wings have lost some important players.

Most notably on the scoresheets, leading goal scorer (40) Marian Hossa has moved away from Detroit to Central Division rival Chicago after signing a cray 12-year contract. The Blackhawks also managed to pull Tomas Kopecky away from the Red Wings, and they signed John Madden as well. Chicago will challenge Detroit the division, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them supplant Hockeytown in the standings this year.

And then there’s the talented duo of Jiri Hudler (26 goals) and Mikael Samuelsson (19), and there’s a lot of offense missing from Hockeytown. Hudler found plenty of willing suitors, but he wound up in Russia. Samuelsson now calls Vancouver home. I wish the two of them the best of luck, but I really wish they stuck around, especially Hudler. His contributions on the second like will undoubtedly be missed.

Also missed will be Ty Conklin. He was an incredibly reliable backup during the regular season last year, and he was arguably better than starter Chris Osgood in that time. Osgood definitely proved himself in the playoffs, though, and Conklin didn’t see a future for himself in Detroit, so he left for St. Louis. The Red Wings will be seeing lots of him this season. The Jimmy Howard Show will take over when Osgood sees the bench this year. I don’t know how confident I am in that program.

Of course, Detroit is a year older. As I documented at the end of last season, the common perception that Detroit is full of old farts on their last legs isn’t exactly true. There is plenty of young talent on the team, and those players (Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Jonathan Ericsson) will be relied on heavily. They certainly showed they are capable of terrific efforts in the playoffs last year. Now it’s time to see how the regular season treats them. Abdelkader will likely be in the minor leagues once Helm comes back from injury.

Now for the new guys (in alphabetical order): Todd Bertuzzi, Patrick Eaves and Jason Williams. Bertuzzi would have been a phenomenal signing four years ago, but it seems like he can’t stick with one team or stay healthy enough to play a full season. In the last three years, Bertuzzi has been with Detroit briefly, Florida, Anaheim and Calgary. He played just eight games for the Red Wings and seven for the Panthers, then managed to make 68 and 66 games in the last two season for the Ducks and Flames. Despite the improvement in games played, there was little evidence that he’ll be able to make up for Hossa or even Hudler on offense — he combined for just 29 goals in his last two seasons. Hopefully he puts it together this season.

Eaves, much more of a youngster at 25, might have been the best pickup for Detroit in the offseason. He finished his 2008-09 campaign with Carolina with 74 games played, 14 points and a plus/minus of seven. They’re not the gaudiest of numbers, I know, and even more troubling was his 59:29 production rating last season, almost double his career high. Still, at 25, Eaves has plenty of room to grow, and he will be a huge help on the penalty kill, an area where Detroit was pretty miserable last year (25th in the NHL).

Williams, who started his career in Detroit, will be back in Hockeytown to provide an experienced third-line presence. He isn’t a big-time producer, but he brought home 19 goals last season for Atlanta and Columbus and also notched 28 assists while staying out of the penalty box. He should shore up Detroit’s third line.

The offense, clearly will be troubling. But coach Mike Babcock realizes this, and his emphasis will be shifting the Red Wings to a defensive team this year. You can’t write a season preview for Detroit without mentioning the king of all defensemen, Nicklas Lidstrom. He and Brian Rafalski are still a solid 1-2 punch on the back line, and Jonathan Ericsson, Ville Leino, Brad Stuart and Niklas Kronwall make for a very good core defense.

“We can’t win games 4-3 and 5-4 all season,” Babcock told The Detroit News. “If we score three goals and can’t win, we’re going to have problems.”

Though it’s not as though the offense will be miserable. They’ve still got guys named Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen, and last time I checked, those guys were decent.

Now, the key question: How does all of this come together, and what is the result?

Many people are picking Detroit to fall off this year, and the Red Wings couldn’t be happier. There are few expectations on them this year as Chicago looks to be stronger than ever. San Jose, Anaheim and Vancouver could also be huge competition in the Western Conference, and that doesn’t even begin to touch the Eastern Conference teams they could meet in the Stanley Cup Finals.

One season removed from a league title and just three months removed from a heartbreaking Game 7 defeat in last years finals, Detroit is still Detroit. Until proven otherwise, they are still the benchmark franchise in all of sports for consistency, coaching, front office management and player development.

All that said, I’m actually siding with most of the world on this one. This should be the season my beloved Red Wings drop off a bit. They’ll take second in the Central Division and lose in the second round of the NHL playoffs to Anaheim, who they beat in last year’s second round.

Chicago is just unbelievably strong with Hossa, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Also, they’ve got a young defender named Dustin Byfuglien who scares me.

In the East, how can you not love Pittsburgh again? The team that ripped my heart out last June hasn’t lost very much, and they are my pick to make it to the Stanley Cup  Finals for the third straight year, winning back-to-back trophies. Alexander Ovechkin and the Caps are already looking beastly, as Ovechkin scored two goals tonight and is currently on pace for 164 this season. Obviously he won’t reach that mark, but he is amazing.

Then again, who knows? I could be miserably wrong about my Red Wings and about the NHL in general. I more than likely am. As for Detroit, we’ll find out tomorrow afternoon on Versus. Enjoy the season, everyone.

Division winners: Chicago, Vancouver, San Jose, Pittsburgh, Washington,  Boston

Eastern Conference Finals: Pittsburgh over Washington in 5

Western Conference Finals: Chicago over Anaheim in 7

Stanley Cup Finals: Pittsburgh over Chicago in 6

Despite Detroit having a 2-0 and 3-2 lead in the Stanley Cup Final, Pittsburgh came back to claim the greatest trophy in all of sports.

So after four days of thinking it over, what did the 2008-09 season mean for the Red Wings?

Obviously, for a team that was one game away from winning its fifth Stanley Cup in 12  years, the season can’t be classified as a huge success. But that doesn’t mean it’s a failure. Sure, the team fell short of the ultimate prize, but there are plenty more prizes that will be springing up in time for the 2009-10 season.

Back in January, the team locked up former Conn Smythe Trophy winner Henrik Zetterberg to a 12-year, $72 million deal, the longest and most lucrative deal in team history. He’s a Red Wing for life now, and that’s something fans can take to heart.

Detroit also locked up forward Johan Franzen to an 11-year, $43.5 million deal three months later. Franzen is a Red Wing for life as well. After his coming-out party in the 2008 playoffs and a 2009 regular season that saw him rack up 59 points, Franzen is going to be a key to the Red Wings for a long time.

Pavel Datsyuk, the third superstar up front for Detroit, is going into the second year of a seven-year extension he signed with the Red Wings in 2007. So they’ll be fine up front.

Apart from signings, though, the Red Wings have some phenomenal youngsters waiting — pun intended — in the wings.

Darren Helm, who has no regular-season goals in 23 games over two years, was a huge breakout star for Detroit in the playoffs.

Justin Abdelkader, who has played all of four regular-season games and whose career regular-season statistics add up to two penalty minutes, was a big contributor when injuries forced him into the lineup during the playoffs. He is still at the tender age of 22.

Jonathan Ericsson, a 25-year-old defenseman, scored Detroit’s only goal in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final and had four goals and four assists in the playoffs — one goal more than Brad Stuart and Brian Rafalski each had.

And Ville Leino, who filled in so admirably for Datsyuk when he missed seven games after a foot injury, finished the playoffs with two assists and is only 25 years old.

It’s safe to say the Red Wings are getting younger and better, especially with the likely departure of — no offense, guys — dead weight Chris Chelios and Darren McCarty in the off-season. Valtteri Filppula and Derek Meech are also all 25 years old.

The resurgence of Chris Osgood as a great playoff goalie was again something to marvel about. During the regular season, I was a fairly harsh critic, saying that backup Ty Conklin should absolutely have been the starter. But Osgood proved me wrong, allowing just 15 goals in the Final. He actually outplayed Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury, who gave up 17 goals in the Final, and Osgood allowed just four goals in the last three games.

Of course, it wasn’t all great news for the Red Wings this season.

Datsyuk and captain Nick Lidstrom missed time in the playoffs with injuries, and any injuries at all are not good signs, especially for the 39-year-old captain. Tomas Holmstrom was almost completely ineffective in the playoffs, and he is beginning to show signs of   age. Detroit also probably can’t re-sign free agents Jiri Hudler and Mikael Samuelsson with the big contracts they gave to Franzen and Zetterberg.

Which brings us to the elephant in the room: Marian Hossa.

Hossa was pretty bad in the playoffs, scoring just six goals and tallying just 15 points in 23 games, well off his pace of 0.96 points per game in the  regular season.

The fact is that Hossa will want lots of money, and the Red Wings know he can get more from other teams in the open market. While Hossa has said that he wants to come back to Detroit, the salary-cap-handicapped Wings might not be able to make that happen.

Hossa came to Detroit to win the Stanley Cup. He failed in his attempt, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a team more likely to win the  Cup in 2010 than Detroit. bodog.com has put the Red Wings at 5/1 favorites to claim the Cup, with Pittsburgh at 7/1 odds, San Jose at 8/1 and the Islanders at a hefty 100/1. Hossa knows where his best hopes are.

As much as people want to yell at him for his weak playoffs, Hossa was one of the Wings’ best players in the regular season — he finished first on the team with 40 goals — and it’s highly unlikely they finish second in the Western Conference without him. Detroit is a better team with him, and they absolutely should resign him if they can figure out a way to make the numbers work.

So no, the Wings’ season wasn’t a success. But it was hardly a failure. They’re the best-run team in the NHL, and no one will look at Detroit on their schedule and be happy to have an easy game.

The future is bright for the Red Wings even if it appears dark right now. It was a surprising ending to the season when they scored just one goal at home in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, but it would be more surprising to see them missing the playoffs any time soon.