The Detroit Red Wings have discovered the hard way that ending a long playoff drought isn’t easy.
They held the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference after a six-game winning streak. They’re now in a precarious position for either wild-card berth following a five-game losing streak. The Red Wings haven’t qualified for the playoffs the last seven seasons.
They’ll try to salvage the finale of a four-game road trip when they visit the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night.
Detroit has been outscored 25-8 during the five-game slide. The Red Wings have struggled without team captain and first-line center Dylan Larkin, who hasn’t played during the road trip due to a lower-body injury.
The journey began with a 7-2 loss at Colorado. Arizona blanked them 4-0 on Friday and Vegas topped them 5-3 on Saturday.
Jonathan Marchessault scored with 2:44 remaining to break a 3-3 tie and he added an empty-netter to clinch the Golden Knights’ win.
“It seems like we’re giving up too much lately — seven against Colorado, then four, then five,” forward Patrick Kane said. “(Saturday), I think the effort was definitely at a good level. There’s always more you can do when you lose, but hopefully it’s a step in the right direction for us. We know the position we’re in and where we set ourselves up to be right now. It’s fun to be in the hunt and fun to be in the mix for the playoffs.”
The fun will be over if the Red Wings don’t turn things around quickly.
“We came out with a really good game plan against a really good team that loaded up at the (trade) deadline even more, and we showed character,” defenseman Moritz Seider said after the Vegas loss. “That was the best game on the losing streak so far. That’s just a bummer, coming out of here with nothing.”
This will be the first of two meetings between Detroit and Buffalo this week. They’ll also match up in Detroit on Saturday afternoon.
The Sabres snapped a three-game winless streak with a 3-2 shootout victory over Edmonton on Saturday.
Buffalo actually celebrated the win on two occasions. Owen Power scored what appeared to be the game-winner with two seconds left in overtime. That goal was nullified upon review when it was deemed that the Sabres were offside.
Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch converted their chances in the shootout.
“That was probably the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in a game,” said Jacob Bryson, who scored his first goal of the season with 8:21 left in regulation to force overtime. “I came running in and half the guys were undressed already. But I’m glad we stuck together there and still pulled out a win after what happened there.”
Buffalo was playing its first game since dealing captain Kyle Okposo and defenseman Erik Johnson before the trade deadline. The Sabres rallied after Edmonton scored the first two goals.
“We didn’t start as we wanted,” goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen said. “That’s something coming off the trade deadline, and maybe mentally it’s not the perfect place to be as a team. Kind of refocusing after getting our feet back under us after the first and kind of sticking with it was a big thing (Saturday).”
–Field Level Media