Alex DeBrincat lifts the Red Wings to an overtime victory in Vancouver and the first wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference

Not for the first time on their present Western swing, the Detroit Red Wings' game was far from pretty Sunday night in Vancouver, but in keeping with the trip's theme, they found a way to win anyway: a 3–2 overtime win over the Canucks, sealed by a shot from Alex DeBrincat that clinched a sixth win running and lifted Detroit to the first wild card spot in the East.

"Their guy got lost in our zone when we picked it up, and [I] saw it was gonna be a long three-on-two, and [Lucas Raymond] was the late guy, so I gave it to him, and he made a great play back to me," DeBrincat told reporters, when asked about the winner.

As for the bigger picture—the game in its entirety and the Red Wings' rapid rise up the standings over the course of January and now on into early February, DeBrincat explained, "We're feeling good.  We're able to win games that maybe isn't our best performance, and tonight was one of those nights.  Back-to-back, maybe not the best legs, and we were kinda sitting back in that third period trying to protect the lead.  I think that's a recipe for disaster.  Once it went to 2–2, we got our legs back and started to push a little bit."  "I think we knew we had it in this room," he added. "I think [we] needed a bit of a fresh start, and kind of a re-start.  It feels like a new season."

The schedule provides a clear reason for Detroit's play to have been something short of its best, having played consecutive games in a 24-hour span with travel between.  As Patrick Kane—who returned to the lineup against Vancouver for the first time since Jan. 21—observed, "Obviously it's a tough back-to-back.  Eight o'clock game for the boys last night and then coming in here for a five o'clock game, we knew it was going to be a little bit of a grind.  Found a way to get it done."

Kane described his performance as "a little rusty," while adding that it was "nice to get back into one and get the first one out of the way and hopefully be better next game for the team."

Meanwhile, coach Todd McLellan—whose post-Christmas arrival could hardly have changed the trajectory of the season more—insisted that it's taken an entire organization's buy-in to achieve the present results.

"Not just the players, training staff and the coaching staff and everybody around the team has a sense of belief now," he told reporters. "When you come in and you try to create an environment and you try to introduce new concepts for the players, they're either going to accept them or making it work, or they're gonna poke holes in it and basically say it doesn't work.  All of our players have chosen to make it work.  The longer it goes, the more they believe."

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