Essentially, the Detroit Red Wings are in playoff mode now because they can’t afford many more losses — if any at all.
With eight games remaining, the Red Wings are on the outside looking in at the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Therefore, Friday’s home game against a Carolina Hurricanes team that already has clinched a postseason berth will have a do-or-die feel for Detroit.
The Red Wings (34-33-7, 75 points) entered Thursday four points behind Montreal for the second wild-card spot in the East, but there are other obstacles in their way. Not only are the New York Rangers and Columbus ahead of Detroit, but the Red Wings’ last eight remaining games are all against teams in playoff position at the moment.
Of those eight games, five are on the road. That adds to the need for Detroit to take advantage of being on home ice against Carolina.
The Red Wings have lost three of their last four games, though they did earn a point in Tuesday’s overtime loss at St. Louis.
“We can either feel sorry for ourselves, which I don’t think is a great option, or we can get right back after it,” said Detroit head coach Todd McLellan. “It’s not like we’re in the middle of the season and can take the time to pout a little bit. We don’t have that.”
The Red Wings hope for two points against a Carolina team that has owned Detroit of late.
The Hurricanes won all three regular-season meetings last year and the first two this year — a 2-1 win March 4 at Detroit and a 4-2 win March 14 at Carolina. Overall, the Hurricanes have won six straight over the Red Wings.
Carolina (46-24-4, 96 points) also has eight games remaining, but looks pretty much locked into the No. 2 spot in the Metropolitan Division. The Hurricanes entered Thursday nine points behind first-place Washington and nine points ahead of third-place New Jersey, which also places them in good shape for home-ice advantage in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Carolina is coming off a 5-1 win Wednesday at home over Washington, which clinched its seventh consecutive playoff berth. Other than St. Louis, the Hurricanes have been the league’s hottest team with 12 wins in their last 14 games.
“We know that we’re in,” Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That was official and I like that we went and took it. We didn’t get it handed to us.”
Special teams might play more of a role than usual — given it will be strength versus strength and weakness versus weakness.
Detroit’s power play ranks third in the league at 28.4 percent while Carolina stands second in the NHL in penalty killing at 84.5 percent.
On the other side, Carolina has the league’s 24th-ranked power play (19.1 percent) while nobody’s worse than Detroit at killing penalties (69.0 percent).
–Field Level Media
