Will Detroit Red Wings’ 24-season playoff streak end today?
This is how it should end. If it has to end.
Not with a dependence on the kindness of strangers, or the futility of your enemies. Not as prisoners of someone else’s outcome, eyes shackled to the out-of-town scoreboard.
No, not like that. If the Detroit Red Wings should see their 24-season playoff streak end this weekend, it will end after the Wings had their opportunity to extend it with a regulation or overtime win at the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon.
In sports parlance, they “control their own destiny.” But coach Jeff Blashill prefers the Cal Hockley approach from TITANIC: They’ve made their own luck.
“We put ourselves in a position by winning a game to control our own destiny,” he said, in reference to their clutch 3-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night. “So let’s go win a hockey game on Saturday.”
Win before the shootout, and they’re in. It’s as simple as that. And the conditions for doing so couldn’t be more favorable for Detroit. Consider:
- The Rangers are resting Henrik Lundqvist. He’s 5-3-2 in his career against the Wings, with .932 save percentage and a 2.17 GAA. This season? He’s 1-0-1 with a .954 save percentage and a shutout. Antti Raanta gets the start.
- Key defensemen Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi are injured and out.
- Offensive catalyst Mats Zuccarello is out with a lower body injury. So is fellow forward Viktor Stalberg.
- On top of all of that, their loss to the New York Islanders on Thursday dropped the Rangers' chances of taking third in the Metro to 34 percent, via Sports Club Stats. The teams are tied with 99 points but the Islanders have two games left, while the Wings are the Rangers’ season finale. And, let’s face it: Third place gets you Pittsburgh, the first wild card gets you Florida. What would the Rangers prefer?
So Detroit faces a Rangers team that’s diminished in personnel and potentially in motivation.
They also face a situation they’ve been in before. “We had to go into Dallas the last game of the (2013) season. We put in a good effort and win that game. We plan on doing the same,” Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser said.
Jimmy Howard was the goalie in that game against the Stars three years ago. He pitched a 17-save shutout.
He wasn’t great in their 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday. Neither was the team in front of him. The back-to-back de facto playoff games drained the Wings. “Hopefully everyone got a great night sleep last night and sleeps well tonight and gets recharged for tomorrow because it’s win and play or lose and hope,” said Howard. “We control our own destiny, which is great.”
It is, provided they seize the moment. But there are options if they don’t.
Should the Wings lose in overtime or a shootout, they can back into the playoffs with a Boston loss to the Ottawa Senators or a Flyers’ loss to the Penguins today or the Islanders tomorrow in regulation. If they lose to the Rangers in regulation, they need a Boston loss in regulation. They’re eliminated if they lose in regulation, the Bruins get at least a point and the Flyers defeat either the Penguins today or the Islanders on Sunday.
But win, and they’re in, for the 25th straight time since 1991.
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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
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