The Red Wings won and the Canadiens lost. That means there’s still a ray of hope in Hockeytown. The Wings only need to win out, the Canadiens need to lose out, and neither the New York Rangers nor the Columbus Blue Jackets can win out.
Sounds simple, right? Hey, strange things have happened in the world of hockey, so I’m putting it past nobody. Still, let’s be realistic. The Wings have hardly a shot at this, even if they turned a few heads tonight.
Judging from the way they’d been playing, I doubt anyone saw a win coming against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Factor in Anthony Cirelli’s goal to open the scoring just one minute into the game, and you could just feel the omens coming. At that point, I thought Tampa was going to score seven times and that I’d be writing a different article.
Red Wings survive to fight another day, but how long will they last?
And wow, did they make tonight’s win over Tampa interesting? Yeah, they went up 2-1, before giving the lead back to the Lightning in the third period. At least until Marco Kasper had something to say about it. With Kasper notching his 17th goal on the year, it was enough to push the game into overtime, where the Wings stole the game 3:22 into the extra period with another goal from Kasper, his 18th on the season.
So, is it realistic to think the Red Wings can make the impossible happen? Honestly, you have young teams in the Canadiens and Blue Jackets, and that could play into Detroit’s favor since the big stage can get to them. Although the Wings are also young, they have enough of a veteran presence to at least guide them through the chaos, especially if they take their next game and the Canadiens lose again.
Like tonight, the Wings can’t panic, and keep playing with urgency. They did that, and it wasn’t existent last night in that bad loss to the Florida Panthers when they played like a team that gave up. It looks like I’ve spoken too soon, and I’ll call myself out on that.
What must the Red Wings take into the next game?
Other than treating it like another Game 7? Play smart hockey. Take smart shots, outmuscle your opponent, win enough faceoffs, and force the other team to chase you for most of the contest, and it’ll be tough to lose the next one. Oh, and keep stealing the puck when a team gifts it to you - 28 giveaways for Tampa tonight.
Don’t overcomplicate the game, and take what your opponent gives you. In other words, simplify the game. If the Wings do all of the above, I won’t guarantee that they’ll win, but I can guarantee they’ll give themselves the best odds to win. Now, let’s see if this gutsy performance was a one-off or if the Red Wings can make the most of this late, late-season push.
