MLive’s Ansar Khan filed an off-day notebook article which discusses Red Wings coach Todd McLellan’s hopes that his players don’t get caught up in observing their place in the jumbled Eastern Conference standings:
“It’s our livelihoods, but we got to win hockey games, and when you lace up the skates, Todd talks about that a lot, take care of what you have to do and that’s what we’ve been focusing on,” [Dylan] Larkin told media following Thursday’s 5-2 victory at Florida.
The Red Wings are 8-1-0 in their past nine. They’re suddenly being shown on TV graphics for the wild card chase, no longer on the graphic for best draft lottery odds.
But as hot as the Red Wings have been, Columbus has won six in a row and is 9-2-0 in its past 11. Montreal is 11-2-1 in its past 14.
Those are two of the teams the Red Wings (21-19-4, 46 points) are chasing for a playoff spot. Detroit is three points behind Boston for the final wild card spot (with Ottawa and Montreal in between). But they have 38 games remaining, so there’s no point in dwelling on that, as McLellan noted.
“Right now, what I don’t want them to do is get caught up in a seven-game win streak or a four-game losing streak,” McLellan said earlier in the week .”I want them to live in the moment and just worry about that. It can be hard if you get caught up in all of that stuff. It can take you down or it can put you too far up. Put the equipment on and let’s deal with things between Minute 1 and Minute 60 and we’re fine.”
Said Andrew Copp: “You kind of know some things, but not staring at it every day. The moment you start standings-watching, you can kind of get caught up in it.”
