Climbing across the red line

The Detroit Red Wings will battle the Vancouver Canucks this evening (8 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/Sportsnet Pacific/TVA Sports/97.1 FM), with the Wings hoping to extend their winning streak to 6 games after defeating the Calgary Flames 3-1 on Saturday night.

I try to not look too closely at the Eastern Conference standings, but Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen reports that the Wings might climb into the playoff picture if they should win tonight:

The Red Wings were eight points out of a playoff spot when Todd McLellan took command of the Red Wings on Dec. 2

Tonight, Detroit can move into the Eastern Conference’s last wildcard spot by winning in Vancouver. The Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins are both idle today.

Tampa Bay currently holds the last Eastern Conference wildcard spot, sitting one point ahead of Detroit and Boston. The Red Wings are 5-0-1 in their last six games, and 2-0 on this road trip.

Did anyone see this coming when GM Steve Yzerman fired Derek Lalonde and hired McLellan? The team is 13-4-1 since McLellan took over.

Also of Red Wings-Canucks-related note from Allen:

Detroit goes into tonight’s road games against the Vancouver Canucks (8 p.m., ET, FanDuel Sports Network) 5-0-1 in its last six games. In those six games, Detroit has given up just nine goals and haven’t up more than two goals in any of those games. The Red Wings are 11-for-13 (84.6%) on the penalty kill in those six games. Captain Dylan Larkin boasts three goals, seven points, 38 shots on goal and is plus-seven in those six games.

I didn’t expect the Wings to have such an excellent record under coach McLellan, but I did expect them to become playoff-relevant.

I’d argue that staying in the playoff-relevant mix for the remainder of this year’s regular season is more important than actually making the playoffs, given that McLellan was given a salvage job…

And while players like Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider are leading the way, I can’t say enough about players like Albert Johansson, Jonatan Berggren, the Wings’ goalies and the rest of the worker bees who are making the Wings’ turnaround happen.

Update: Here are tonight’s game notes: