Eight games into the season, the Red Wings sit at 4-3-1. The way they've gotten their nine points compared to Nashville's habit of playing for the shootout has them in 3rd place in the division and 6th in the conference. They're currently 7 and 3 points behind Chicago and St. Louis squads which have both played much better than Detroit in all facets of the game.

With that, we're going to take a look at the roster from an individual standpoint on a good/bad/neutral perspective and see what kind of trends are working out. We'll be doing this on a week-by-week basis, but since this is the first one, we'll take everybody at what they've provided for the last three weeks. We'll be giving everybody a good/bad/neutral rating based on what they've done so far and what we can expect from them for the coming week.

They'll also be ranked in order of strongest-to-weakest in their category.

The Forwards

The Good

1. Henrik Zetterberg - Zetterberg leads the team in points and all forwards in ice time. His possession numbers are good for the team's top center and he leads the team in CSSI-Adjusted plus/minus.
2. Pavel Datsyuk - Just behind Zetterberg, Datsyuk has been a force for the Wings with 10 points in his first 8 games.
3. Valtteri Filppula - It's nice that his 6 points in 8 games leaves the feeling like he could have more. The team-leader among forwards in relative Corsi, Filppula has been as consistent as anybody and defensively sound.
4. Johan Franzen - Questions about consistency of effort will always haunt Franzen, but a point-per-game pace is exactly what's expected of the big winger.
5. Damien Brunner - Brunner is adjusting and his goal total is a bit inflated by two garbage markers, but he's shooting the lights out and moving the puck the right way.
6. Todd Bertuzzi - 3 points in 5 games for Bert is working out well for a guy who's contributing in good but subtle ways.
7. Darren Helm - Hard to call him "Good" when he's played only one game, but it was the best game his team played and we've already covered how important he may be.

The Bad

1. Daniel Cleary - At 5-on-5, he's got less than 50% offensive zone starts, which might give him a pass if he weren't also getting more than 3:30 per game on the PP with zero production.
2. Drew Miller - Miller simply hasn't been getting it done. He's played better the last few games, but not enough to make up for the bad start.
3. Mikael Samuelsson - He played one game and injured his groin. That one game wasn't nearly enough information, but it certainly looks like the team won't have room for him when he's back.

The Neutral

1. Justin Abdelkader - As one of the forwards getting killed by PDO, Abdelkader could sure use a little more "puck luck", but he's doing better with tough assignments than the numbers indicate.
2. Jordin Tootoo - Whether you like him for the fighting or the aggressive forechecking, Totoo is doing his job well.
3. Patrick Eaves - If not for context, Eaves would probably be in the "bad" category with Miller and for pretty much the same reason. Eaves is still adjusting to having been out of competitive hockey. I'm ok giving him a break for a little longer
4. Cory Emmerton - Combine everything said about Abdelkader, Tootoo, Eaves, and Miller and we've got Emmerton covered.
5. Jan Mursak - Injured in the first period of the first game, it's unfortunate to see this happen to him.

The Defense

Injuries

The Good

1. Jonathan Ericsson - Riggy is making the most of his opportunity with solid play in the defensive zone and even three points to his credit so far.
2. Brendan Smith - Rookie mistakes have hurt overall, but he's playing well and moving the puck in the right direction. Hopefully his injury won't be too much of a setback.
3. Carlo Colaiacovo - Cola only got into two games and there's serious doubt about how many more he'll be able to play with his splodey-bones, but when he's in the lineup he's good.
4. Ian White - White is trending up, but the knee laceration suffered derailed that. When he has been in, he's played well against tougher competition.
5. Jakub Kindl - one bad game, one average, and two good games equals out to good. He's getting sheltered, but playing well.

The Bad

1. Niklas Kronwall - Kronwall is getting the most minutes and toughest assignments, but he's not doing well overall. His penalty rate has been insane.
2. Kyle Quincey - Quincey put together three very good games, but has also had three very bad ones. Overall, he needs to be consistently better.

The Neutral

1. Kent Huskins - Huskins has been solid, but unspectacular. He's got the 2nd-highest offensive zone start % and the worst on-ice Corsi on the team.
2. Brian Lashoff - Lashoff's play has looked quite similar to Huskins' so far. As a rookie, I'm excited about his potential, but just looking at how he's played, he's just been serviceable.

The Goalies

The Good

1. Jimmy Howard - His stats aren't great and the most-recent game was downright bad, but Howard has kept the Wings in games this season. There are plenty of places outside the crease to look for problems with this roster.

The Bad

The Neutral