This is what I was afraid of

We're only four games into the season, and already four Wings injured themselves:

• Brian Rafalski - Out a month after knee surgery
• Jonathan Ericsson - Out since Game 1 with back injury. Listed as day-to-day.
• Kris Draper - Has not played yet this season. Out indefinitely with groin injury.
• The Mule - Concussion in Game 4. Out indefinitely. Likely to miss at least 3-4 games.

The big loss is Rafalski. The Wings are not deep on defense. With Rafalski in the lineup, the Wings beat both the Ducks and the Blackhawks. They lost the next two without him. He's obviously a key component.

For a puck possession team, the Wings consistently fall prey to the one they should avoid - turnovers. They had 15 in the loss to the Avs, which cost the Wings the win. Last season, opposing teams regularly beat the Wings with an aggressive forecheck. The Wings had difficulty passing the puck deep in their own zone due to the forecheck. This led to turnovers, goals-against, and, ultimately, losses.

Word spread quickly. Pressure the puck all game, and the Wings will turn it over. That was the key to beating them. And it worked almost the entire season. The new faces that took the spots of the injured Wings last year just couldn't consistently work the puck control. And it's no different this year. Ericsson was one of the main culprits for turnovers last year, but even he is a step up from his replacement - Doug Janik. The other new face, Jakub Kindl, also fails to grasp the Red Wing passing game. Perhaps they'll improve with time, but it will just get harder if more Wing regulars go down. The team is not deep.

It's not just the new face, though. Datsyuk, Homer, and Stuart were all a shocking -3 last night. Nick and Z were a -2. Yes, they'll have difficult games over the course of the year, but my worry is that many of last year's problems are not resolved. Would I prefer the Wings to abandon their puck control culture? No. But they need to find the right personnel to make it work.