Friday could serve as a potential preview of a first-round NHL playoff series when the New York Rangers visit the Detroit Red Wings.
The Rangers hold the NHL’s best record and are on a tear, having won six of their last seven games following a 4-3 home win over the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.
New York (51-21-4, 106 points) is trying to hold off Carolina for the Metropolitan Division title and outlast Boston for the top postseason seed in the East. The Rangers were three points ahead of Boston and five ahead of Carolina entering Wednesday.
Four of the last five wins for New York have been by one goal, but Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette is actually encouraged by those close calls.
“I would love to blow out teams,” Laviolette said. “It just doesn’t happen on a regular basis. It’s not playoff hockey, either. The fact that we are scraping for wins, I think that’s a good thing for us.”
On the other side, Detroit (37-30-8, 82 points) is already in playoff mode, as every game feels like a must-win for the rest of the regular season.
The Red Wings are in a tightly contested battle with Philadelphia, Washington and the New York Islanders for the Eastern Conference’s two wild-card spots.
Detroit is tied with Washington for the second wild card at 82 points, one point ahead of the Islanders and one point behind the Flyers, who currently hold the third playoff spot in the Metropolitan.
The Red Wings have fewer regulation wins than Washington and Philadelphia, so they are on track to lose any potential tiebreaker with those teams at the end of the year.
Detroit earned just four points during a brutal five-game road trip at Nashville, Washington, Carolina, Florida and Tampa Bay but stayed in the thick of the playoff race. The Red Wings ended the trip with a crucial 4-2 win at Tampa Bay on Monday.
With three days to rest up, the Red Wings will come home for a three-game homestand, starting with their third game of the season against the Rangers.
The Red Wings lost the other two games in New York on Nov. 7 (5-3) and Nov. 29 (3-2). Artemi Panarin scored for the Rangers in both those contests.
Detroit will also play Buffalo and Washington at home before finishing with three of its last four games on the road.
“We have an unbelievable opportunity with seven games left, and I’m excited to see how we’re going to handle this,” Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said. “No matter what happens, this is going to be fun. This is awesome.”
The game will feature two of the better offenses in the NHL. The Rangers entered Wednesday tied for fifth in the league with 263 goals, while Detroit was 10th at 251 goals.
The big difference between the teams is defensively. The Rangers are tie for seventh in the league in goals allowed (214), while Detroit ranks 23rd with 249 goals allowed.
The Red Wings will be without a key offensive piece. Lalonde said on Wednesday that forward Michael Rasmussen will miss the game with an upper-body injury.
Rasmussen has 13 goals and 20 assists in 75 games this season.
Lalonde also said that Alex Lyon would be the starting goalie against the Rangers. Lyon is 19-16-4 with a 3.00 goals-against average in 2023-24.
–Field Level Media
