Author: George Malik

The Detroit Red Wings concluded their 2025-2026 campaign by playing against the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night. Two teams without any playoff hopes = a game that can either be incredibly boring if the teams just “go through the motions,” and, if we’re lucky, a game in which players play for both pride and for jobs on next season’s team as they go out with a bang.

On Wednesday Night at Amerant Bank Arena, the Red Wings were roundly embarrassed, losing 8-1 to Florida’s “B Team.” Justin Faulk scored Detroit’s only goal, John Gibson was pulled due to taking a shot to the face, and neither he nor Cam Talbot were very good–but Detroit was -30, with Mo Seider of all people finishing at -4.

The Red Wings were totally out of gas mentally and out of gas physically, but there is still no excuse for the Red Wings’ struggles to even show up for the final game of the season.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Daniil Tarasov led their respective teams out onto the ice (and again, there’s no walk-out video from the Wings)…

The Detroit Red Wings’ playoff push is over, but two games remain on the regular season schedule, starting with Monday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning…

And it’s always instructive to see how a team responds when it’s got nothing to play for other than pride and jobs on next year’s team.

On Monday night at Benchmark International Arena, the Red Wings displayed all the good and bad points of their 2025-2026 regular season’s worth of play via a 4-3 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Wings took a 1-0 lead, gave up 3 straight goals to go down 3-1, rallied for a point with a late goal by Alex DeBrincat that happened to include Patrick Kane’s 1,400th NHL point…

Patrick Kane's 1,400th career NHL point. 🎬 pic.twitter.com/KJf7woOKVZ

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) April 14, 2026

Patrick Kane gets his 1,400th point with this assist to Alex DeBrincat 🤝 pic.twitter.com/0w2BO5N02a

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 14, 2026

But in overtime, a mess-up in terms of coverage in the offensive zone–much like several of the Wings’ coverage mistakes that resulted in goals against in regulation–yielded a 2-on-1 for Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point, and with Andrew Copp the last man back, Detroit and Cam Talbot stood no chance of stopping the Bolts from taking a 4-3 OT decision.

WHO ELSE BUT KUCH!!??

Nikita Kucherov's 44th goal of the season ties a career high and wins it just 27 seconds into overtime!

🎧: https://t.co/S6Y9TymMk9
📻: @1025TheBone pic.twitter.com/GGqs3eRVNU

— Lightning Audio Network (@BoltsRadio) April 14, 2026

PREGAME: Cam Talbot and Andrei Vasilevskiy led their respective teams out onto the ice (and the Red Wings’ social media team didn’t do their usual goalie-leads-team Tweet, so here’s the Bolts’ Twitter video thereof…)

Win and get help, or lose and golf. That was the equation for the Detroit Red Wings as they hosted the New Jersey Devils on Saturday afternoon.

At Little Caesars Arena, the Red Wings played the kind of game they have all season long. Detroit took 1-0, 2-1 and 3-3 leads over the course of the first, second and third periods, but managed to surrender three straight 3rd period goals to lose a 5-3 decision to New Jersey.

The loss eliminated the Red Wings from the 2025-2026 playoff chase.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Jake Allen led their respective teams out onto the ice…

The Red Wings needed to win Thursday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers to continue their incredibly unlikely but possible playoff chase.

So, on Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena, the Red Wings got the job done, and did so in emphatic fashion, winning 6-3 over the Flyers.

Dylan Larkin scored a hat trick and had 4 points; Moritz Seider had 1 goal and 4 assists for 5 points; Patrick Kane had a goal and 2 assists for 3 points; John Gibson got the win by stopping 13 of 15 despite leaving after the 2nd period with an undisclosed injury, and Cam Talbot stopped 10 of 11 in relief.

Red Wings roll to a 6-3 win, on a milestone night at LCA.

– Larkin a new career high 34 goals
– DeBrincat Detroit's first 40-goal scorer since Hossa
– Seider up to 60 points after 5-point night
– And Kane now on the doorstep of 1400 pts for his career

— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) April 10, 2026

🧢🧢🧢

Powered by @Verizon https://t.co/uIahwVFuP3 pic.twitter.com/eSc89qQ5R9

— NHL (@NHL) April 10, 2026

PREGAME: John Gibson and Dan Vladar led their respective teams out onto the ice…

The Red Wings faced the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night at Little Caesars Arena, with their season on the line, given the “playoff math” that stands stacked against Detroit’s post-season hopes.

On Tuesday evening, the Red Wings rallied from a 1-0 deficit in goals by Dylan Larkin and Justin Faulk, when Zach Werenski tied the game, Faulk responded with a 3-2 marker…But Adam Fantilli tied the game at 19:43 of the 3rd period, and in the shootout, Werenski would have revenge on his hometown team, scoring the shootout winner.

Between Detroit’s loss and the Blue Jackets and Senators’ wins, the Red Wings desperately need to both win out and get a lot of help from teams beating Columbus and Ottawa going forward.

With emphatic win over #njdevils, #LetsGoFlyers upped their playoff odds to 60%.

But that late tying goal and shootout W by #CBJ made for big swing (13+%) in the odds – according to @IneffectiveMath's model.

Latest:#GoSensGo 91%#LetsGoFlyers 60%#CBJ 31%#isles 13%#LGRW 4%

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) April 8, 2026

I am hugely disappointed in the Wings' second-half splat. It's painful as hell in the pit of my acid reflux.

But the Wings will not be "blown up." Todd McLellan will not be fired. And Steve Yzerman will be in the management team for as long as he wants.

I believe in a "revamp." pic.twitter.com/4JyC04iQqy

— George Malik (@georgemalik) April 8, 2026

PREGAME: John Gibson and Jet Greaves led their respective teams out onto the ice…

The Red Wings hosted the Minnesota Wild in the back half of a back-to-back slate of games, hoping to rebound from an embarrassing loss to the New York Rangers on Sunday. With 6 games remaining in the 2025-2026 campaign, Detroit needed to all but “win out” their remaining games and receive some help on the out-of-town scoreboard in order to make one final, desperate push for a playoff spot.

On Sunday afternoon at Little Caesars Arena…

What a mess. Detroit got a goal from Albert Johansson only 1:40 into the 1st, but the Wild got goals from Boldy and Kaprizov by 1:25 into the 2nd period to take a 2-1 lead, Tarasenko scored a 3-1 goal at 7:03, and Kaprizov scored his 2nd at 12:32 to make it 4-1…

But Detroit rallied on goals by Axel Sandin Pellikka at 7:18 of the 3rd, J.T. Compher at 11:14 of the 3rd, and Patrick Kane at 14:36…

But Kane took an undisciplined penalty, and Kaprizov scored on the ensuing power play to put the game out of reach as Minnesota won 5-4.

PREGAME: Cam Talbot and Filip Gustavsson led their respective teams out onto the ice…

The Detroit Red Wings entered Saturday’s game against the New York Rangers in a 4-way tie for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, which the Ottawa Senators owned due to a regulation wins tiebreaker:

As such, both Saturday’s 12:30 PM matinee in New York, and Sunday’s 1 PM home matinee against Minnesota, stood as very close to must-win games.

On Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden, the Red Wings absolutely squandered a golden opportunity, falling on their faces en route to a 4-1 loss to the Rangers. Gabe Perreault scored a natural hat trick, David Perron broke Jonathan Quick’s shutout with only 33 seconds remaining in regulation time, and the Red Wings just…

They fell on their faces, frankly. Gibson was good but got little help, Dylan Larkin, injuries and all, was the Wings’ best player by far, and Detroit played intimidated.

It was really ugly, and now the Wings have to regroup and play Minnesota tomorrow at 1 PM on TNT.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Jonathan Quick led their respective teams out onto the ice…

The Detroit Red Wings needed to make their own hay over the course of their final 8 games of the 2025-2026 regular season, and that began with the second of three showdowns with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Philadelphia entered Thursday night’s game with a 37-25-and-12 record for 86 points, and Detroit stood at 39-27-and-8 for 86 points, tied as both teams chased Wild Card spots–and tied with the Ottawa Senators, who also possessed 86 points heading into Thursday’s games.

But the Wings don’t play the Sens again, so stonight and next Thursday’s games vs. Philadelphia = “must-win” games for Detroit.

On Thursday Night at XFinity Mobile Arena, the Red Wings scratched, clawed and battled their way out to a 4-2 victory that was heartening and a huge relief after the Wings’ egg-laying vs. Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

Ultimately, Detroit won 4-2 thanks to a pair of goals by Alex DeBrincat, a Lucas Raymond marker and a goal from Patrick Kane that gave Kane the all-time American scorer’s record…

And John Gibson was fantastic after playing bad in Pittsburgh, stopping 32 of 34 shots.

See below for more!

PREGAME: John Gibson and Samuel Ersson led their respective teams out onto the ice…

The Detroit Red Wings hoped to build upon Friday night’s win over Buffalo as the Wings hosted the plucky Philadelphia Flyers, with whom the Red Wings will play 3 times over the final 4 weeks of the regular season.

On Saturday night at Little Caesars Arena, the Red Wings displayed both sides of a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality that has caused them so much trouble this season.

John Gibson had a rare “off game” in surrendering 4 goals on 22 shots against, and Philadelphia built up a 4-0 lead over the course of the game’s first 53 minutes…

But Mason Appleton, Alex DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond scored goals just under 3 minutes apart (in total), giving Detroit a 4-3 deficit…

With the Wings seeing Flyers captain Sean Couturier salting away a 5-3 result with an empty-netter with 2:04 remaining in regulation time.

Had the Wings started on time, or gotten better goaltending, or better defense…

You can make up a lot of, “What if’s?” about this one, but the truth is that the game was lost, and that makes the Wings’ climb back toward a playoff spot much harder.

Detroit will have two more chances to make the Flyers feel the sting of loss, starting on Thursday in Philly.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Dan Vladar led their respective teams out onto the ice…

The Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins entered Saturday night’s game with identical 38-23-and-8 records, though the Bruins had 2 more regulation wins than Detroit. As such, Saturday night’s affair pretty much defined a “four-point game” in terms of the stakes thereof.

On Saturday night at Little Caesars Arena, the Red Wings had 1-0 and 2-1 leads, but a couple of bad goals against John Gibson and a spectacular performance by Jeremy Swayman–who stopped 41 shots–yielded a 4-2 defeat, empty-net goal for Boston included.

I wouldn’t totally pin this one on Gibson, who was spectacular at times, stopping 22 of 25 and stopping a Lukas Reichel penalty shot late in the 3rd period…

But the Wings had too many chances to score, and did not finish against a hot goalie.

Them’s the breaks. Now it gets harder from here.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Jeremy Swayman led their respective teams out onto the ice…