Amazing. An 82-game season comes down to the final game of the year. After an uninspired performance in Boston on Thursday, Detroit still needs a win to stretch their playoff streak to 25. Technically they could lose and still get in but they would need a lot of help, so let’s just win and take on the Lightning in the First Round. You would think the NHL knew this race was going to happen. Scheduling the Bruins and Flyers this week and putting the Red Wings’ and Bruins’ game both at 12:30 today. 

My colleague Ryan Hana broke down how the Red Wings’ playoff clinching scenarios:

It’s going to be intense, but at least the Red Wings hold their own fate. Thankfully, their opponent this afternoon is a Rangers team that might actually be more interested in losing this game. If New York wins, they will likely get the red-hot Penguins in the first round, where if they lose, they are guaranteed to get the Florida Panthers in the first round and the winner of Tampa Bay vs. Detroit (hopefully)/Boston (hopefully not). I’m not trying to say they’re going to lose on purpose, but they may be as uninspired as Detroit was on Thursday. 

The scariest part about today’s meeting is how close the first two meetings were. Detroit and New York have split the season series, each taking home an overtime win. I’m already nervous, can you imagine overtime today… please no. Let’s break this thing down! 

Detroit Red Wings Lines courtesy of DailyFaceoff

The Red Wings lineup is a bit uncertain at this point. Justin Abdelkader left Thursday’s game with an injury, but Ken Holland said he is expected to play today. Joakim Andersson was recalled yesterday, much to the chagrin of basically everyone, but Holland called him “insurance.” The Red Wings would be in big trouble if Abdelkader can’t play. He does it all for them. But, if he doesn’t and Andersson is his replacement… expect fireworks. Anthony Mantha is patiently waiting…but let’s just hope that Abby play. 

In a game as big as today’s the Red Wings can look no further than their leaders. Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Niklas Kronwall need to step up. Zetterberg was all but invisible on Thursday, until he took a dumb penalty in the third. Pavel had some flashy moments, but nothing really generated from it. Kronwall is skating on one-leg by the looks of things, so it’s hard to expect too much out of him at this point. 

One thing Detroit needs to do today is get pucks to the net. They couldn’t do it with an regularity on Thursday and the Bruins scored almost every one of their goals by getting bodies to the net, throwing rubber at it and tipping it in or cashing on rebounds. It doesn’t always have to pretty. It won’t be in the playoffs and today is a de facto playoff game.