This morning, the Free Press’s Helene St. James looks back at some of the Red Wings players’ and coach’s comments regarding their status after losing the Stadium Series game to Columbus…
“We’ve been here before and there’s experience we gained through that,” Dylan Larkin said Saturday, after a disappointing finish to the outdoors game at Ohio Stadium. “We control our own destiny.”
The 2023-24 Wings were inside the playoff picture when March began, but when the month ended, and they had lost 11 of 14 games, they were on the outside. They won five of the eight games they had in April, but ended up missing out on the playoffs on a tiebreaker. That’s how tight the race to advance can be.
“We’ve got to find a way, no matter what,” Larkin said.
They took Sunday off, a chance to rest before taking on the Carolina Hurricanes at home on Tuesday. The Wings go into that game coming off back-to-back losses to the Columbus Blue Jackets; the first time, at Little Caesars Arena, they were definitely the second-best team on the ice — but Saturday, it was a different kind of loss.
“It’s hard to bitch and complain about the effort, the drive and the response,” coach Todd McLellan said. “But yet the game management and the impatience sometimes of our team can come back to bite us. There’s a huge difference playing on your toes and being aggressive, and being impatient. And I thought we got a little impatient at times and they made us pay.”
The Wings (30-24-6) have 22 games left, 13 of them on the road, with a schedule that includes three games against the Carolina Hurricanes (second in the Metropolitan Division), and two trips to the Washington Capitals (including this Friday, the trade deadline), who are chasing the Presidents’ Trophy.
And Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff spoke with Alex DeBrincat and Joe Veleno about the Wings’ status looking forward:
“Right now, I think we got to worry about us and not anyone else,” is how forward Alex DeBrincat put it. That’s a sentiment most of his teammates also share. Don’t worry about what any other team is doing. Take care of business and it won’t matter.
That being the case, Joe Veleno is kind of the exception to the rule – or maybe it’s simply a case of him not dealing in the cliche business.
“At least for me, there’s obviously a lot of hockey that I follow and a lot of accounts that I follow that are heavily involved in hockey, so I’m always seeing that,” Veleno said of the goings on of the NHL. “I like to watch other teams and obviously teams that are right behind us. Just keeping track of what’s going on in the league. Obviously I’m a big fan of the game.”
On the one hand, Detroit coach Todd McLellan was toeing the company line when it comes to the standings. Then, he admitted, sure, they’ve got one eye on what other teams are doing.
“We have a very direct focus on our group right now,” McLellan said. “But we’re well aware of what’s going on around the league. We know where we sit, where we stand.”
Veleno told Duff that it’s better to be talking about a potential playoff return than not:
“It’s good that we’re having this conversation,” Veleno said. “I mean, playing meaningful games, it’s definitely something we wanna do and keep doing. Especially with the organization, the way it’s trending, we wanna be part of these meaningful games. For a lot of us, like I guess youngish players, we haven’t had that playoff experience yet, so for us, this is really all we know. We hope to one day be in that position where we’re playing every year in the playoffs and competing and that’s the team we want to become.”
