Patrick Kane said Monday the Detroit Red Wings were still in control of their own destiny. This morning it feels as if they don’t have control of anything.
The Red Wings’ 3-2 loss to Ottawa Senators has created increasing doubts about this team’s quest to qualify for the NHL playoffs.
“We gotta be honest with ourselves,” Detroit defenseman Moritz Seider said. “ That’s a very winnable game. And if we’re not upset with ourselves, we’re doing something wrong. And I think we just have to regroup, analyze, be honest with each other, tell each other the truth, and then come ready to go tomorrow to get a little bit better.”
A Detroit team that owned an 80 percent chance of qualifying for the playoffs three weeks ago now owns a 45.7% probability. It’s now less than a coin flip that the Red Wings can end their nine-year postseason drought.
The Red Wings moved into a playoff spot on Dec. 7, and held a spot for more than 100 days. But back-to-back losses to key playoff competitors Boston and Ottawa make us wonder whether they will get back in a playoff spot. On Friday, they play a road game against the surging Buffalo Sabres.
“The room is mad. The guys are mad,” Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said. “That was a big game for our hockey team and unfortunate how well we played against those guys all year. And then. And then this one tonight. . . it kind of wipes away our record against those guys because that was a big game.”
Mistakes and lack of offense continue to undermine the Red Wings efforts.
“You have the chance to play good hockey, but then simple mistakes end up in the back of the net,” Seider said. “And that’s frustrating because you’re playing against an opponent and you just open the door for them.”
The Senators moved ahead of Detroit with the win. Coach Todd McLellan thought his group was a “little big slower, a little bit sluggish” in the contest.
That seems inexcusable given the importance of the game.
“We put pucks into areas that we wanted to, but we didn’t win those areas after,” McLellan said. “So all of a sudden we’re coming out of the end, got some pucks to the net, but we didn’t get to the screen, or the tip in, or deflection, areas, which I thought we did against Boston, but we didn’t do that tonight against Ottawa.”
With the Eastern Conference so tight, every mistake is magnified.
“The moments that are going against us are correctable moments,” McLellan said. “ We have a puck out of our end (on) the third goal. I’m just thinking about (Marco Kasper). He knows better. We’ve already cleared the zone. We’re playing against a team with very few NHL-experienced defensemen, and we have a chance just to push the puck at them. And we bring it back into our end now and we’re running around, and it’s in our net. So those are moments that we have to handle better. We just have to.”
Earlier this season, the Red Wings were competing with the Carolina Hurricanes for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Today, they are 10th in the conference, facing a challenging two-games-in-two-nights at Buffalo Friday and home against the Philadelphia Flyers Saturday.
Technically, they still control their destiny. If they won their last 11 games, they would have 106 points. That would qualify them. But that’s not realistic.
Said Seider: “Probably puts a little bit more pressure on us, but nothing changed.”