Detroit opened Tuesday tied with Columbus and still trying to keep its playoff chase alive, but the Red Wings no longer had room for another slip. The Blue Jackets came in on a three-game losing streak, and the matchup carried extra weight because Detroit had five games left and only the second wild card spot still looked reachable.
The Red Wings were one point ahead of Washington with a game in hand, but Ottawa was still two points up on Detroit with 90 points and the tiebreaker edge thanks to 34 regulation wins to 29. That left Detroit needing results almost immediately, starting with a home stretch that included Columbus, Philadelphia and New Jersey before two road games next week at Tampa and Florida.
Detroit’s season had already been defined by missed chances. On March 4, the Red Wings lost 4-3 in overtime to Vegas after blowing a 3-1 lead. On March 10, they lost 4-3 to Florida in regulation after leading midway through the third period. Then on Sunday, they erased a three-goal third-period deficit against Minnesota and were minutes from forcing overtime before a late power play turned the game the other way.
That collapse-and-recover effort carried a glimpse of what still kept Detroit in the race, but it also underscored how fragile the margin had become. Patrick Kane took an away-from-the-play tripping penalty against Minnesota, a costly moment in a game the Red Wings needed badly as they tried to stay in range of a postseason berth.
The standings around them have tightened while Detroit’s path has narrowed. Philadelphia had climbed into the third seed in the Metro after being several games back weeks earlier, and the Islanders had already made a dramatic change over the weekend, firing Patrick Roy and replacing him with Pete DeBoer. New York had gone 3-7 in its last 10, another sign that the race is less about who is surging than who can stop losing long enough to grab points.
For Columbus, the game arrived after a sharper fade than the one it showed early in the season. The Blue Jackets had gone 3-6-1 over their previous 10, a stretch that followed the new-coach bump that began Jan. 12 after Rick Bowness was described as essentially retired. The burst that briefly lifted them into relevance had cooled, and the loss of momentum made Tuesday a test of whether they could blunt Detroit’s chase or feed it.
Detroit still had to make the most of what remained, because the calendar was no longer forgiving. Five games to go meant little margin for a night like Tuesday, and one source close to the matchup summed up the mood plainly: the outlook was not good. The same source put the situation in even starker terms: those are the stakes. Five games to go.
That is why blue jackets vs red wings mattered beyond a single night in the standings. Detroit was not chasing first place or a comfortable cushion. It was chasing the one opening that still seemed possible, and every dropped point now makes the climb steeper.
