Detroit Red Wings' road to playoffs has new pothole, but here's why it can still happen

This one will hurt for a bit. Long into the night, at least, according to the Detroit Red Wings’ captain. Though at this point in the season there isn’t much time for moping.

Or for thinking about so many missed chances a month ago; it isn't time to look back ruefully just yet, even as the temptation is understandable after a buzzing — then demoralized — crowd watched the Wings lose to the Washington Capitals, 2-1, Tuesday night at Little Caesars Arena.

There’s still a playoff chase going on, and the opportunities to make it happen are coming fast. They’re also disappearing.

No wonder the Wings came out so strong in the first period, peppering Washington goalie Charlie Lindgren. Whatever sluggishness they’d began with so often in March has been gone for a minute now.

Still, blast away so intently and frequently and you expect a little something for the effort. And if this were December or January, maybe effort is all you can ask.

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But Derek Lalonde knows well what time of year it is. It was sunny and 74 degrees on Tuesday, though that warm fact doesn’t demarcate the calendar as it once did.

Still, it’s April, and the regular season is running out, and Lalonde was trying to make the point that great effort — as his team showed Tuesday night — deserves to be praised early in the season. This time of year, though, it doesn’t mean so much if it isn’t accompanied by points.

“If this is a game in the first half of the season,” he said, “we’re talking about our process and sticking with it.”

But who wants to talk about the process now? About growth and youth and ... um, rebuilding?

No one, that’s who. So, let’s talk about this instead:

Zero.

That’s how many points the Wings earned Tuesday night.

Let’s talk about this as well: four.

That’s how many games the Wings have left. At Pittsburgh, at Toronto, home against Montreal, at Montreal.

The Capitals’ win gave them the final wild card spot for now. They’ve got 85 points, ahead of the Wings and the Penguins who are at 84.

It’s hardly insurmountable, and Lalonde insisted that his team is still in this thing. Hey, coaches aren’t wired to say anything else.

But the reality is the Wings’ playoff chances took a big hit. For one thing, they no longer control their own fate. They need other teams to lose.

For another, while Montreal is not good, Pittsburgh is, and the Penguins are hot, and they will be at home, and if the Wings don’t beat the Penguins, then they will be trailing two teams for the final spot if the Capitals keep winning.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: The Capitals stink. And it’s true, they had lost six in a row before Tuesday. They’ve also got a few good goal-scorers and a goalie capable of closing off the net for a night.

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Which is to say that the laws of winning and losing, of sports in general, tell us that the six-game losing streak can easily ricochet into a five-game winning streak. Momentum, and all that.

If that happens, the Wings are done, obviously. Yet there is some hope. The Capitals play at Buffalo on Thursday. The Sabres are at least scrappy. Two days later, Washington hosts Tampa in D.C.

This is probably the one to circle. Yes, Washington plays Boston Monday, but the Bruins might rest their stars and they’ve been more beatable lately anyway.

All of this would not have mattered if the Wings could have figured out Lindgren when they had the chance. They sprayed 43 shots at him, though they didn’t generate enough chances, especially when the puck bounced back out into the slot.

At some point the Wings might score on a rebound again, but that point isn’t here yet.

“We had chances,” said Dylan Larkin, “we just didn’t execute. That's twice now Lindgren’s kinda had our number. As forwards, it’s one that we’re going to be thinking about late tonight.”

What they won’t think about is the effort. There was plenty of it. But then it shouldn’t be hard to get up for one of the most important regular season game in years.

Actually, to heck with qualifiers: this was the biggest hockey game since Little Caesars Arena opened almost seven years ago. Not something to brag about, obviously, at least not by this franchise’s standard, and history. But recent history hasn’t been kind to the Red Wings.

Neither was Tuesday night.

It began with the Wings tied for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with the Penguins and ended with them trailing the Capitals.

Player to player, they aren’t as talented as the Wings, and most certainly aren’t as deep. And when they controlled the first 35 minutes of the game, and nearly doubled them up in shots well, it wasn’t so surprising.

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But then neither was the mini-letup toward the end of the second period, when the Wings’ couldn’t get the puck out of their own zone — a season-long issue — and the Capitals took advantage. The final blow was a poor attempt at a clear from J.T. Compher, who meekly flicked the puck up the center of the ice where it was easily intercepted.

A few moments later, Dylan Strome flipped a wrist shot from the right side, and in games like these, playoff type games, a single goal can do it. For insurance, Washington got another 2 minutes later, with 7 seconds left in the period, to be precise, when a pass from David Perron to Moritz Seider didn’t connect and Alex Ovechkin scooped the loose puck and whipped it past Alex Lyon from the left side.

A tough mistake, sure, and a tougher angle Ovechkin found. These are the plays that shape and change a season, though. Thirty-five minutes may be a great start, but it’s still a start.

If they get a similar start in Pittsburgh Thursday, they’ll give themselves a chance. Win that and they’ll give themselves another.

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings' playoff hopes dim; here's why it can still happen