Austin Konenski
The Detroit Red Wings are very close to must-win territory. On Thursday night, the Red Wings host the Philadelphia Flyers, with their playoff hopes quickly fading. As of now, Detroit sits three points out of the second Wild Card spot with four games left in the 2025-26 NHL regular season.
Since the Red Wings don’t own the tiebreaker over the Ottawa Senators, it makes life more difficult moving forward. Detroit needs to score four more points than Ottawa over the remaining four games to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The other route would be the Red Wings winning out while the Boston Bruins lose out.
Detroit can pass Boston with three regulation wins to hold the tiebreaker, but it will be tough against the Flyers, New Jersey Devils, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Florida Panthers. Realistically, the Red Wings need to win the next four games if they want to make the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The journey starts with Philadelphia, which sits third in the Metro Division with 92 points. The Flyers lost to the Red Wings in Philadelphia last week, but have won their last three games against the Bruins, Devils, and New York Islanders. Meanwhile, the Red Wings haven’t won since beating the Flyers, riding a three-game losing streak.
Detroit figures to put John Gibson in the net while Dan Vladar is the projected goalie for Philadelphia. Gibson has two wins in his last eight starts, allowing 2.88 goals per game. The 32-year-old goaltender has allowed three or fewer goals in the last four games, but the Red Wings’ offense has only scored 2.25 goals in those matchups.
The Red Wings need to win on Thursday night. If not, Detroit’s playoff hopes are pretty much gone.
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