{"id":541234,"date":"2026-04-05T01:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/541234\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T01:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:02:15","slug":"red-wings-blow-chance-to-get-ahead-in-wild-card-race-with-upset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/541234\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Wings blow chance to get ahead in wild-card race with upset"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nhl\/teams\/detroit_red_wings\/109\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Detroit Red Wings<\/a> could have moved into the Eastern Conference&#8217;s second wild-card spot with a win on Saturday. Instead, their upset 4-1 loss to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nhl\/teams\/new_york_rangers\/94\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New York Rangers<\/a> pushes them closer to extending a franchise-record playoff drought.<\/p>\n<p>As the regular season winds down, the Red Wings (40-28-8) remain part of a four-team cluster with 88 points and tied for the East&#8217;s second wild-card position, along with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nhl\/teams\/ottawa_senators\/99\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ottawa Senators<\/a> (39-27-10), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nhl\/teams\/columbus_blue_jackets\/108\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> (38-26-12) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nhl\/teams\/philadelphia_flyers\/95\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Philadelphia Flyers<\/a> (38-26-12).<\/p>\n<p>Saturday marked something close to a must-win for Detroit considering its schedule over the final six games. The Rangers (32-36-9) are last in the Metropolitan but handily defeated the Red Wings, who scored their only goal with 33 seconds remaining. New York won 34-of-56 (60.7 percent) faceoffs and held Detroit without a goal in four power play opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>Red Wings face uphill climb to make playoffs following loss to Rangers<\/p>\n<p>Before the Winter Olympics break, the Red Wings were riding high at 33-19-6, appearing in decent shape to reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2016. But the team has nosedived in the 18 games since returning from the in-season stoppage, going 7-9-2.<\/p>\n<p>Over its final six games, Detroit plays the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nhl\/teams\/minnesota_wild\/115\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Minnesota Wild<\/a> (42-21-12), Blue Jackets, Flyers, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nhl\/teams\/new_jersey_devils\/92\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New Jersey Devils<\/a> (39-34-2), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nhl\/teams\/tampa_bay_lightning\/105\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> (47-22-6) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nhl\/teams\/florida_panthers\/104\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Florida Panthers<\/a> (37-35-3), giving it several more potential pitfalls before the regular season ends on April 15.<\/p>\n<p>The Red Wings&#8217; loss wasn&#8217;t bad news for everyone. The result <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nhl\/articles\/buffalo_sabres_clinch_playoff_spot_end_longest_postseason_drought_in_nhl_history\/s1_13132_43687407\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">clinched a spot in the postseason<\/a> for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nhl\/teams\/buffalo_sabres\/98\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Buffalo Sabres<\/a>, snapping the longest playoff drought in NHL history. But that also moved Detroit up a rung, making it the NHL franchise with the longest active postseason drought.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been a drastic change in fortune for an organization with 11 Stanley Cup titles, and the tide might still be going against the Red Wings. Unless they can quickly rediscover their early-season form, they&#8217;ll once again be on the outside looking in when the playoffs begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Red Wings could have moved into the Eastern Conference&#8217;s second wild-card spot with a win on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5101],"tags":[599,93,5137,5,4,3358,5138],"class_list":{"0":"post-541234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-red-wings","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-red-wings","10":"tag-detroitredwings","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-red-wings","14":"tag-redwings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116349406488088173","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}