Daily Faceoff’s Anthony Trudeau suggests that the Red Wings are, at best, a “long shot” to earn one of the Eastern Conference’s Wild Card spots, per an article which attempts to handicap the teams battling for said spot:
Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings wanted to play a more disciplined defensive game this season, but that resulted in a lineup full of guys who were gripping their sticks too tight and generally afraid to make plays. Before they fired Derek Lalonde, the Wings were outshot by five attempts per game and had the second-worst goal differential in the NHL. In the immortal words of John Tortorella, “safe is death,” and the Red Wings’ season was on life support before Steve Yzerman pulled the plug on Lalonde.
Under Todd McLellan, they’ve been far more proactive, outshooting the bad guys and riding a sizzling power play (41.9% since the coaching change) back to the .500 mark. Patrick Kane looks rejuvenated (6 G, 16 P in 12 GP under McLellan), Lucas Raymond is a star (50 P in 46 GP), and Marco Kasper (3 G, 5 P in last 5 GP) has been a revelation on Dylan Larkin’s left wing.
So, why are the Wings a long shot? Just look at the schedule. The Red Wings have beaten some good teams including Florida and Washington on their road back to relevance, but the hard part starts now. Detroit has the toughest remaining schedule in the NHL, and losses to Tampa Bay and Dallas by a combined score of 9-1 over the weekend served as a reminder that even with McLellan on board, this team can be prone to sloppy, turnover-prone hockey. There will be growing pains, and for a team that probably can’t survive a three or four-game skid, that’s a problem.
Continued; we all know that the Red Wings are facing the toughest remaining schedule in the league in terms of quality of competition–the Wings’ broadcasters keep telling us that–and I do not disagree that coach McLellan is engaged more in a salvage job than he is engaged in a playoff run…
But I choose to believe that the Wings can at least stay relevant over the second half of the season.
