Saturday night’s 4-2 loss at home to the Boston Bruins put the Detroit Red Wings in a bit of a bind. A win would have catapulted the Red Wings ahead of the Bruins and into a solid hold on the Eastern Conference’s first wild card spot.
Instead, the loss lifted the Bruins and put the Red Wings in a bit of a bind. The New York Islanders' victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets allowed them to leapfrog the Red Wings, dropping Detroit out of a playoff spot.
In short, the Red Wings can’t rely on luck moving forward. The team just can’t count on opponents stumbling enough times. Eventually, someone is going to catch up and really turn the heat up on the Red Wings.
The bottom line here is that the Red Wings have to win and they're in. It's that simple. They don't need to rely on anyone to help them out. Sure, it's nice to catch a break here and there. But sooner or later, Detroit has to win enough games to secure a playoff spot.
There’s just too much at stake for Detroit this season. The optics of fading down the stretch yet again would not sit well with fans.
The Red Wings have to make the playoffs this season
There’s a simple argument for the urgency in Detroit to make the playoffs this season. Red Wings fans have grown increasingly uneasy about the next step in the Yzerplan. Another playoff miss this season would seriously call into question the rebuild’s viability. After a couple of close playoff misses, the time has surely come for the Red Wings to finally make it back to the postseason.
The fact that the Red Wings are running out of runway should serve as a wake-up call. With the pressure mounting, the club has to come together and string a few solid games. From there, it's feasible to see strong efforts turn into victores.
After all, there's just too much at stake. The rebuild has gotten to a point where it should yield results. Those results must be tangible in a way that fans can see what a decade of patience has in store. And that's a playoff appearance. Making the postseason would validate everything that the Yzerplan is about.
But a playoff miss, well, the offseason scrutiny would really fall on GM Steve Yzerman and his brainchild. The organization would have to come up with answers for another March slide out of a playoff spot. It wouldn't come down to vague answers about losing one game here or another there. The conversation would have to yield concrete reasons for missing the postseason.
It’s just better to make the postseason and avoid the entire conversation. It's better to focus on the next steps in the offseason, rather than go back and figure out why the team just can't get over the hump.