The Detroit Red Wings start the season in the NHL in a new conference and a new division, but the end game remains the same as the team will try to get back to the Stanley Cup finals when they open the season against the Buffalo Sabres at Joe Louis Arena.
The Red Wings have been one of the most dominant teams in the west over the past decade and now they will try and dominate a new conference as the NHL decided to make the divisions more geographically accurate. The Red Wings have high expectations after allowing the Chicago Blackhawks to come back to win their playoff series on the way to a Stanley Cup championship and now the team has some new names in the fold, including Daniel Alfredsson, who parted ways with the Senators.
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Alfredsson had a rough season last year with Ottawa after scoring just 10 goals and now he joins a team that is looking to get back into the mix. Jimmy Howard comes back after having a very solid season with over 20 wins for the Red Wings and he was a work horse as well, starting nearly every game but a handful for the team. The Red Wings have been excellent at home against the Sabres in the past, not losing in the past 12 matchups and now they will be getting more of an Eastern flavor and the travel should be better for the team as well.
Detroit moves from a division that included the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks, but now the team will be in the Atlantic division in the East. The Red Wings are now in a division with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Sabres, Senators as well as the Tampa Bay Lightning, Montreal Canadiens, Florida Panthers and Boston Bruins, who made it to the Stanley Cup finals last season.
The NHL now has four divisions and the top three teams in each division in the two conferences will get into the playoffs with two wild cards filling out the other spots. The East has the Atlantic and Metro division, while the West now has the Central and the Pacific and the Jets are now in the West, while the Red Wings and the Blue Jackets have moved east.
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