The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood discusses what the Red Wings might take as lessons learned from the Detroit Tigers’ late-season playoff run as things apply to the Wings’ battle for a playoff spot:
Even when the road gets difficult, when games are hard to win and the prospects of a season don’t look so great, it’s important in any sport not to give up hope. That’s how the Tigers became the hottest team in baseball to end the season, stringing together a 33-16 record since their gloomy playoff forecast on August 5.
“It’s just a lesson on believability,” Lalonde said. “It’s pretty neat that it’s the Tigers, it’s Detroit, but certainly a lesson on believability watching that group.”
Believability only goes so far. In order to translate it into wins, every player has to turn their belief in the group into results on the field. In the case of the Red Wings, believing they had a playoff chance late last season proved inspiring for the group as it embarked on its near-miss playoff run. Every point was seen as proof that they could make it into the postseason, and every loss was seen as a wasted opportunity that only intensified their resolve. In the end, they didn’t make it into the postseason, but they learned a lot about themselves in the process.
For the Tigers, the same process netted them the extra win or two they needed to clinch their wildcard berth. Every time they were doubted, they used it as further motivation to prove the world wrong. It took intense effort; it took players giving everything they had to make it. But in the end, the Tigers proved the naysayers wrong.
“I think you kind of use that as motivation,” defenseman Jeff Petry said Thursday. His father, Dan, is a former Tiger and one of Bally Sports Detroit’s Tigers commentators. “And not speaking on the Tigers, but what they were doing the last month of the year is that — they had to give everything they had, and they hit the playoffs feeling good about themselves and at the top of their game.”
