As they enter their bye week, the Detroit Red Wings find themselves just six points removed from the last wild card playoff spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.
While that paints a much better picture of their future than when they entered the Christmas break out of the postseason by double digits, Sunday’s 5-2 drubbing handed them by the Atlantic Division-leading Tampa Bay Lightning was a stark reminder of just how far behind the big dogs the Red Wings are still running.
Still, they are choosing to focus on baby steps, such as their battle to get back into the playoff chase.
“You look at the overall picture here, obviously we’ve had a really good stretch,” left-winger Justin Abdelkader told Mlive.com of Detroit’s 5-1 homestand. “We’re getting ourselves back into the thick of things. We’ve still got some work to do but we’ve got to continue to play the way we have for most of this homestand.”
The Wings have clearly dug themselves a hole, but feel that they are taking the necessary steps to correct what ails them and have the ship back pointed in the right direction.
“I think we’re optimistic in here,” forward Gus Nyquist said. “We talked about it here the last couple weeks, I think we all think that we’re a better team at this point this year than we were last year, although the lines look very similar.
“I think we’ve made strides as a team. We’re a few points out right now but if we keep playing the way we’ve been doing here lately, I think we’ll have a good chance.”
When his team gets back to work later this week, Detroit coach Jeff Blashill doesn’t want them looking back, and he most certainly has no desire for them to look ahead. Focus on what’s immediately in front of you is his gameplan for the Wings.
“To be honest, I don’t spend a lot of time looking big picture or looking back,” Blashill said. “We were focused on trying to win a hockey game (Sunday) and then we’re going to focus on trying to win a hockey game in Pittsburgh (on Saturday).
“The one thing I’d say is I think in large part we’re doing a lot of things it takes to be successful. I think that, and I’m told that by people around the league. We’ve just got to stay on it and understand we’re going to be in lots of games and we’ve got to find a way to win them.
“We need points for sure, we need lots of wins, but we’ve got to keep doing it right. We’re not going to be perfect, I’ve yet to see a perfect team, but we’ve got to play as complete as we can and find a way to win when we come out of this break.”
Coreau Returned
As was to be expected with the Wings about to embark on a five-day break, goaltender Jared Coreau was returned to AHL Grand Rapids after Sunday’s loss.
The key will be whether he stays there when the Wings resume practicing later this week in preparation for Saturday afternoon’s game at Pittsburgh. If Coreau is summoned again from Grand Rapids, it will be a sure sign that Jimmy Howard’s lower-body injury is far more serious than the Wings first considered it to be.
“We don’t anticipate it being a long-term thing at all,” Blashill said of Howard’s ailment. “Sometimes on some mild injuries there’s some stiffness and things like that that we think will be fine in five days but I’ll find out.
“We’ll come through the break. I anticipate him being available but we’ll see.”
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