The Detroit Red Wings are in great spirits after an extremely successful West Coast trip that took them to California. After defeating the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks, and Anaheim Ducks this past week, Detroit is back at home. The Red Wings have not historically fared well on these kinds of excursions; their most recent victory on one of these California visits came in 2008.
Another long-standing trend was also broken by the Red Wings on Sunday night in Anaheim. For the first time this season, Detroit emerged victorious from a game without scoring four goals or more. Though strange, I’m relieved the streak is ended. I can’t even begin to count how many times I muttered to myself during Sunday’s game, “Yes, Mr. Ducksworth, quack, quack, quack, quack, Mr. Ducksworth,” particularly because the Ducks were sporting a throwback uniform. I watched those Mighty Ducks movies a lot when I was younger or even when I was a teenager. In my area, if you liked hockey, you would dress up like Charlie Conway and spend a lot of time on the pond during the winter months honing the ‘triple-deke.’
The postseason race in the Eastern Conference and the Atlantic Division is very close. There isn’t much space for mistake, and the Detroit Red Wings would be right in the middle of things at the top of the Atlantic or very close to it if they hadn’t had such a terrible December. The Detroit Red Wings are currently fourth in the division with 44 points.
The Toronto Maple Leafs, who have three games remaining and behind the Boston Bruins by eleven points and the Florida Panthers by eight points, respectively, are three points ahead of the Red Wings. Things grow increasingly serious when it comes to the wild card race. The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Red Wings are separated by just one point. Similar to the Red Wings, the New Jersey Devils, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Washington Capitals are ranked fifth and sixth in the Metropolitan Division, respectively, with 44 points. With 46 points, the New York Islanders are in fourth place.
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