Red Wings Need Some Help to Make the Playoffs
If the Red Wings are going to make the playoffs, they're going to need some help from the opponents of Philadelphia and Washington as it races them for the final wild card spot
Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports - Red Wings Need Some Help to Make the PlayoffsWhat do the Beatles, Joe Cocker and the Detroit Red Wings all have in common? Well, they need a little help from their friends.
That’s not a shot at some poor defensive play as of late by Detroit, or the fact that the offense has been shut out in two of the past three games. It’s not about goaltending, either. No, they need help in the standings, because at their current trajectory and with the season coming down to games they can count on their fingers, they’ve fallen behind. Not only does Detroit need to win almost all of its remaining games, but it needs its playoff race opponents, Washington and Philadelphia, to lose.
“I asked the guys to stay with it, try to build something in the third,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said Friday. “We had a very strong third period, and we got some help in the league last night which (is) the reality of where we’re at in the moment. We have a really tough opponent (Florida) on the road and we’ve gotta find a way to get some points. And it’s only going to be done with a good team game.”
Good team games or not, playoffs are only going to happen if the Red Wings can outpace their nearest opponents. Currently, the Capitals sit in the second wild card with 81 points in 72 games and the Flyers rank third in the Metropolitan Division with 82 points in 74 games. One of those two teams will hold the third spot in the division, but Detroit can make the wild card if it surges ahead of one of them this final stretch of the season.
The odds of that happening look pretty slim. Moneypuck gives the Red Wings a 15.6% chance at making the playoffs. And while the Red Wings need some help from other teams, they might be living on hope. In terms of the remaining schedule, the Flyers have the weakest one with an average opponent point total sitting at 72.75. Detroit’s remaining opponents sit at 82.3, an almost negligible edge against the 83.3 point average of Washington’s remaining docket. Anybody can win in the NHL each night, and the Red Wings’ chances all but hinge on some upset work.
Already, Detroit has gotten some help on nights it failed to win. Thursday night, both the Flyers and Capitals lost, but the Red Wings got shut out by Carolina. On Tuesday in a must-win game, they lost in overtime to the Capitals on the same night the Flyers lost in overtime to the New York Rangers. Twice the cards have fallen for Detroit to jockey for position, and twice it has failed to bank that opportunity.
Ultimately, the best way for the Red Wings to make the playoffs is to win their games. That’s the only variable they can control, after all. Right now, they’ve got two games in Florida against the Panthers and Lightning to focus on.
“We’re at Florida, we’re at Tampa — two places very difficult to win in,” Lalonde said Friday. “I’m comfortable and confident, I think we’ll do well on home ice down the stretch but we gotta get there the next two games.”
Let’s say that Lalonde is right and the Red Wings can sing in tune these next couple games. They win their three home games against the Rangers, Sabres and Capitals at home, and let’s even throw a home-and-home against Montreal to end the season in Detroit’s favor. Those five wins would put the Red Wings at 88 points, just short of Washington’s projected 90.8 points and Philadelphia’s 91.8. That means that Detroit still needs two wins or so out of its four other road games: Florida and Tampa this weekend, and then Pittsburgh and Toronto in early April.
None of that math is guaranteed — projections are never exact. However, if the standings stay on their current trajectory, the Red Wings will need seven of their final nine games to make the playoffs. That would mean one of its best stretches of hockey after a month of inconsistency. It’s unlikely, hopeful at best, and it illustrates why Detroit is going to need some help from the teams that face Washington and Philadelphia the rest of the season.
Scoreboard watching aside, the Red Wings can make a good start to their final postseason push this weekend in Florida. They can only sway the results of their own points, not those of other games.
“Great opportunity with an early game in Florida, a team that’s always tough to play against, but I think we’ve shown that we can beat them especially in their rink,” defenseman Moritz Seider said Thursday. “And that will be a big step in the right direction, I think, if we get two points out of that building.”
Seider’s defense partner, Ben Chiarot, agreed: “We got nine games here to go. Every night’s important. Every night we treat it like a playoff game. Like in playoffs, it’s not always gonna go your way. You’re gonna get down in series, down in games and you just keep plugging away and that’s what we’re doing here.”
Maybe, just maybe, Detroit can get by. But that'll only happen with a little help from its friends.
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