Red Wings in 'crunch time' with playoff spot on the line

DETROIT -- This is a defining moment for the Detroit Red Wings.

Each of the past two seasons, they have faded down the stretch and missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs. This is supposed to be a different group that will write its own story, but the same old story is playing out.

They have 11 games left to change the narrative, starting against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Friday (7 p.m. ET; FDSNDET, NHLN, MSG-B, TVAS2).

The Red Wings are three points behind the New York Islanders, who hold the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference, and two behind the Ottawa Senators. They have two games in hand on the Islanders, one on the Senators.

Will they author a happy ending this time or extend their playoff drought -- already the longest in their 100-year history -- to 10 seasons?

"Obviously, we've been in that situation before," defenseman Moritz Seider said. "We know how much it can stink. We better come up with an answer for that. It's all on us right now. It doesn't matter who we play. We need points. Yes, we want to play well, but sometimes we need a gritty one to just get going."

In 2023-24, Detroit was 33-20-6 on Feb. 28. The Red Wings held the first wild card and were eight points ahead of the first team below the cut line, the New Jersey Devils. They went 8-12-3 the rest of the way. They tied the Washington Capitals with 91 points, but the Capitals earned the second wild card due to the regulation wins tiebreaker (32-27).

Last season, Detroit was 30-22-6 on Feb. 26. The Red Wings held the first wild card and were four points ahead of the first team below the cut line, the New York Rangers. They went 9-13-2 the rest of the way. They finished with 86 points, five behind the Montreal Canadiens, who earned the second wild card in the East.

This season?

Missing the playoffs would be even more painful. 

Detroit was 32-16-5 on Jan. 25. The Red Wings were tied with the Carolina Hurricanes for first in the East -- not the first wild card, first place -- and 10 points ahead of the first team below the cut line, the Florida Panthers. They have gone 6-9-3 since.

In that span, they rank 28th in the NHL in points percentage (.417). Though they are 11th in goals against per game in that stretch (2.83), they're 31st in goals per game (2.22), 29th on the power play (13.0 percent) and tied with the Vancouver Canucks for 28th on the penalty kill (73.3 percent).

They made two additions prior to the NHL Trade Deadline on March 6, acquiring defenseman Justin Faulk from the St. Louis Blues and forward David Perron from the Senators. Faulk has two points (one goal, one assist) in eight games. Perron, who was recovering from sports hernia surgery at the time of the trade, didn't join the lineup until March 14 and has no points in five games.

They still have a .592 points percentage overall and remain on track to have their best record since Steve Yzerman became general manager April 19, 2019. But it still might not be enough.

Too many points have slipped away. Three recent examples: a 4-3 overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on March 4, when Detroit had a 3-1 lead in the third period and got one point out of it; a 4-3 loss at the Panthers on March 10, when they had a 3-2 lead with 90 seconds left in regulation and got no points out of it; and a 3-2 loss to the Senators on Tuesday. 

Ottawa was playing the second game of a back-to-back on the road and missing five defensemen due to injuries, while Detroit was rested at home. The Red Wings had a power-play goal disallowed after video review found the play was offside, then gave up a power-play goal to fall behind 1-0 with 2:45 left in the first period.

"You could feel it a little bit, the tension," coach Todd McLellan said. "We've got to get over that. There's going to be bad things that happen to our team, and we've got to recover. We've shown the ability to do that throughout the year. But now in crunch time, can we maintain that resilience? It's getting tested, and it's going to keep getting tested."

They fell behind 3-0 after making the kind of "correctable" mistake that has plagued them. After Detroit cleared its defensive zone, center Marco Kasper brought the puck back into it, and the puck ended up in the Red Wings net.

"Those are moments that we have to handle better," McLellan said. "We just have to."

Captain Dylan Larkin returned after missing seven games with a lower-body injury, and he scored on the power play to make it 3-2. But McLellan said Larkin's return might have set Detroit back instead of providing a lift, because the others were like, "OK, we got our leader back. We got our captain back. We can take a little bit of a breath." 

"The guys are mad," Larkin said. "That was a big game for our hockey team."

Seider said: "If we were not upset with ourselves, we're doing something wrong."

McLellan said the Red Wings were sluggish and tight against the Senators. They must find the right balance -- and fast.

"We've got to play loose and free, but we've got to play with details," McLellan said. "We've got to play with awareness. We've got to be connected. All that cliche stuff that coaches say, but it is true at this time of the year.

"We have to be excited about the opportunity at success and not anxious about the fear of failure. Sometimes that gets in the way a little bit. But we'll figure it out. We're going to get through it."