Red Wings reach NHL playoffs for 25th straight season
By @MichaelCaples –
It may have been by a margin slimmer than the bottom of a hockey skate blade, but it doesn’t matter – the Red Wings are heading to the playoffs.
Detroit fell to the Rangers 3-2 in New York today, but the Ottawa Senators beat the Boston Bruins 6-1, which gives the Red Wings a spot in the postseason via a tiebreaker.
Both Detroit and Boston finished with 93 points for a tie in the battle for third place in the Atlantic Division, but the Red Wings’ 39 ROW (regulation plus overtime wins) was one better than the Bruins’ 38.
That means that for the 25th straight season, the Red Wings will make an appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“Our goal was to win a Stanley Cup at the beginning of the year,” coach Jeff Blashill told Fox Sports Detroit after the game. “The only way to do that is to earn your way into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and we’ve taken Step 1. We’ve taken it through 82 games of the season, I thought our guys played real hard tonight, but it’s a 82-game year, we earned our points, and we’re really excited to be in. Now we have work to do.”
The Wings will have a rematch with the Lightning in the first round. A Detroit vs. Tampa Bay first-round showdown is the only NHL playoff match-up determined at this point; the other seven pairings have yet to be decided.
Detroit could have secured a playoff spot with a victory against New York today, but ended up falling 3-2. Despite goals from Riley Sheahan and Justin Abdelkader and outshooting the Rangers 33-20, the Wings couldn’t overcome goals from Dan Boyle, Kevin Hayes and an empty-netter from Oscar Lindberg.
“Back-to-back losses, but we earned ourselves this spot,” captain Henrik Zetterberg told reporters during FSD’s postgame broadcast. “You count the points from Game 1…when we played Philly at home, that’s a huge game, we won that one and I thought today we played good. We had a chance to win. We didn’t play good enough in Boston, but that’s the last three games. You had 79 before. If you’re in the playoffs, you earned a spot, and we’re there.”
The Bruins, however, failed to take advantage of the Red Wings’ blunder, as they were thoroughly manhandled by the Senators in Boston. A four-goal second period but the Senators on track to play spoilers for the B’s, ending Boston’s season with a 6-1 victory on the road.
Jimmy Howard said it doesn’t matter how they reached the postseason – all that matters is that the Red Wings are one of 16 teams left standing after 82 games.
“They can say whatever they want,” Howard said when asked about ‘backing in.’ “We’re in the playoffs. That’s all we care about.”
Ottawa’s win gives the Red Wings another trip to the postseason; Detroit’s 25 straight trips to the playoffs remains the longest active streak in all of professional sports. The next closest is the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, who have made 19 straight appearances.
The Red Wings have matched the St. Louis Blues’ 25 straight appearances from 1980-2004. Boston holds the NHL record after making 29 consecutive appearances from 1968-96, while Chicago went to the postseason 28 straight times from 1970-97.
“You don’t want to be the team that breaks that record or that streak,” Zetterberg said. “It’s been closer lately, but we’re finding ways to get in.”