Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Detroit Red Wings
By John Evans of Octopus Thrower
Detroit found a real good way to close out the month of March. Thanks to wins against Toronto and Tampa Bay, offsetting the loss to Montreal, Detroit finds itself in the first wild card playoff position with 84 points, ahead of Columbus by one and with games in hand on the Toronto Maples Leafs and Washington Capitals. The playoffs aren’t in the bag quite yet – the Wings will have to win four of their remaining seven games to reach the 92-point plateau – but their destiny is in their hands going into the month of April.
Gustav Nyquist, the new savior of the Winged Wheel, had a great week. He ended the month of March as the second star of the NHL and scored a goal-of-the-year candidate against Toronto after being hooked on his way to a breakaway goal. There’s been positive news on the injury front, as Pavel Datsyuk will return this week. Justin Abdelkader returned as well and captain Henrik Zetterberg is aiming to return on April 16- the start of the playoffs Detroit hopefully finds itself in. Daniel Alfredsson has been sidelined, however, and is currently day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
The Wings line up some Atlantic Division opponents this week, starting with the Bruins tonight. They take on the Sabres Friday, faceoff against Montreal again on Saturday and revisit Buffalo on Tuesday. All winnable games, we’ll see what they do with what’s handed to them.