Thursday, April 18, 2013

Down the Playoff Stretch for the Red Wings

      The Detroit Red Wings have five games left in the regular season and as it stands going into play on Thursday 4/18, they are in ninth place two points out of the last playoff spot.  If they miss the post season it will be the first time in 21 years.  Can they pull it out, make the playoffs and extend that streak?  If they want to, they need to play better and get help from other teams in these last few games.  The Columbus Blue Jackets are the team the Wings are chasing and they have four games left in the season.  The play in Los Angeles, in San Jose and in Dallas before returning home to play Nashville, which means they face two teams already in the playoffs, one team that is out and one team, Dallas, that still could make it.  The Jackets are 0-2 against the Kings this season, 2-0 against the Sharks, 1-1 versus Dallas and 3-1 against Nashville.  Detroit, on the other hand, has games at Vancouver, at home against Phoenix, Los Angeles and Nashville before going to Dallas to end the season, meaning two playoff teams, two out and Dallas fighting for their playoff lives just like Detroit.  The Wings are 2-0 against the Canucks, 1-1 against the Coyotes, 1-1 against the Kings, 2-1 against the Predators and 1-1 against the Stars.  Of course this means nothing if Detroit can't start winning their own games.  I have written a few posts about the struggles of the Red Wings and there hasn't been anything done to fix the issues I spotlighted.  The powerplay is still awful, the stars aren't scoring,   the defense is still a sieve and Jonas Gustavsson is a horrible netminder, what ever happened to Petr Mrazek?  If the Wings have any hope at all they need to start by winning Saturday night against Vancouver.  That is the game they need to focus on, if they can't win that one the season is over.  If they get by the Canucks then the Coyotes become the one game to think about.  That is the only way this will work..  Babcock and his coaches have to keep everybody focused as a laser on the next game, not what are the Blue Jackets doing, or how are the Stars playing.  Nope, the only thing they can be thinking about is the team  they play that night and if they're good enough and lucky enough  to get help from the other teams in the league, then they might get the honor of facing the Chicago Black Hawks, in which case they will be golfing really early and planing on starting the 2014 season in the Eastern Conference.  I'm starting to get to the point of writing them off this year and just looking forward to 2014.  I hope that I'm wrong and they can make the playoffs and go on a deep run but I don't think so.    

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