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The Detroit Red Wings’ playoff chances lie on life support, but there might still be a ray of hope for the struggling club.<\/p>\n
The Detroit Red<\/a> Wings\u2019 chances of making the 2026 NHL playoffs currently lie on life support. Their latest 5-4 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Sunday has pretty much stuck a fork in their season.<\/p>\n Despite the valiant effort in coming back from a 4-1 third-period deficit against Minnesota, a costly penalty late in the game essentially doomed the Red Wings\u2019 hopes of ending what is now the NHL\u2019s longest playoff drought.<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s not all gloom and doom.<\/p>\n The Wings are two points behind the Ottawa Senators, who hold the second wild card spot. They have a game in hand. So, there\u2019s hope.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the people at MoneyPuck don\u2019t really seem to agree. According to the current playoff odds, the Red Wings have a 15% chance of making it to the dance<\/a>. That\u2019s more than double the chances the Winnipeg Jets<\/a> and Washington Capitals have.<\/p>\n But it seems that the Red Wings\u2019 most recent play just isn\u2019t convincing enough.<\/p>\n If the scoreboard is any indication, 15% might be a little too high.<\/p>\n Entering last weekend, the Red Wings had a golden opportunity to wrap up their playoff spot. All they had to do was win. That was it.<\/p>\n Instead, the Red Wings coughed up a major hairball on Saturday in their 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers<\/a>, yes, the Rangers of all teams.<\/p>\n Then Sunday\u2019s loss drove a dagger through the hearts of the team. While the season is not technically over, it might as well be. The morale in Detroit is in the dumps and might require a miracle to turn around.<\/p>\n Red Wings Have to Win the Rest of the Way<\/p>\n Truth be told, 15% is better than nothing. But if the Red Wings really want to get into the postseason, they\u2019ll have to win all of their five remaining games.<\/p>\n Their next matchup comes against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Wings are tied with the Blue Jackets at 88 points. However, the Wings are ahead of Columbus as they have two more regulation wins.<\/p>\n As such, the Red Wings have to win on Tuesday night against Columbus. A win gives the Red Wings 90 points. Considering the Blue Jackets are reeling, it\u2019s a fantastic opportunity to take over and grab a hold of the final wild card spot.<\/p>\n The rest of the way, notwithstanding, won\u2019t be quite so easy.<\/p>\n What to read next: Red Wings D-Man Could Surprise with Major Award Consideration<\/a><\/p>\n Detroit Will Face Several Tough Opponents<\/p>\n The Red Wings\u2019 remaining opponents include the Philadelphia Flyers, New Jersey Devils, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Florida Panthers<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Flyers and Lightning will hardly be easy opponents. Meanwhile, the Devils and Panthers, as banged up as they are, could still throw a monkey wrench in the works.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s the road ahead. If the Red Wings win out the rest of the way, a playoff spot could be on the horizon. Otherwise, the alternative will be a summer of second-guessing. The organization will have to get back to basics and figure out what could change to finally get the club over the hump.<\/p>\n The Wings can avoid a major existential crisis by winning and making it to the 2026 NHL playoffs.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tNestor Quixtan<\/a> Seasoned NHL analyst and baseball writer focused on covering clubs across each league with news, analysis, and insights. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Nestor’s singular experiences and background have enabled him to bring a different take on the sports world as a whole. Nestor’s fondness for baseball and hockey set the tone for his love and passion for writing about sports. More about Nestor Quixtan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Red Wings\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty The Detroit Red Wings’ playoff chances lie on life support, but there might still be a ray…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[463,464],"tags":[5,4,60,14,104,718],"class_list":{"0":"post-544509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl-playoffs","8":"category-stanley-cup-playoffs","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-nhl-playoffs","12":"tag-stanley-cup","13":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","14":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116360287109404419","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544509","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=544509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}