lordstanley

Storybook returns aren’t always like a Disney movie.

Wings likely need to go 6-2-1 or equivalent to make the playoffs. Penguins play the Islanders tonight. Don’t be a 3 pt game. Leafs can top out at 91 points currently, which would go down to 89 if they lose to Anaheim tonight. The Wings’ loss to Philly the other day knocks out the possibility of the Wings officially eliminating the Leafs with a Detroit win over Pittsburgh tomorrow. Darn, that would have been nice.

Wrong thread.

Because your point that they’re just not good enough seems accurate. Other teams have dug deep and reeled off wins when they had to. It’s one thing to lose touch with Carolina and Tampa. But how sad it is to in just 8 days fall 8 points behind and 6 points behind Boston after being tied with them. And pathetic to now be tied with mediocre Ottawa and Philadelphia after being 8 and 9 pts up on them at the beginning of this month. Copp missed a whopping 3 games. Larkin was back for then losses to Ottawa and Philly. Completely fragile team.

Boston storms back from 3-0 down to tie Columbus in final seconds and win it in shootout. I guess it is good news for the Wings as within 2 pts of Pittsburgh or Columbus. But Boston and Montreal (who have won 5 straight after late loss to the Wings, including twice over Carolina) are out of reach now for the Wings. Only the 2nd wildcard spot is available, realistically. But scoreboard watching seems increasingly pointless without the Wings doing the bare minimum to help themselves.

55 minutes of crap, 3 minutes of excitement, then fizzles out for the last couple of minutes. 5-3 Philly final. The door was open for the Wings and they stumbled and crashed.

Raymond scores.

DeBrincat scores.

Appleton scores.

Tippett has made the Wings look silly tonight.

Seider “goal” waved off for obvious offside. Wings played with desperation finally on that powerplay but Philly survived to intermission. Wings trail 3-0, no consistency.

3-0. Terrible. Same as Ottawa game.

The Wings need to kill this penalty with 4:12 to go or it might be all she wrote.

Another one through Gibson’s legs. Those can’t go in.

I can’t remember the Wings’ last good chance. Fortunate it’s only 1-0.

Wings were back on their heels the last couple of minutes of the period, could easily have been 2-0. But Philly leads 1-0 after 1.

Mazur has played two shifts for 1:50. Last year in his NHL debut he was injured on his 2nd shift after playing 1:10.

Breakaway goal through the legs of Gibson.

Scheduling quirk in that 3 of the Wings’ final 10 games are against the same non-divisional opponent, Philadelphia.

San Jose scores late to beat Columbus in regulation while Dallas doubles Pittsburgh in regulation. This and the Ottawa loss makes it good enough day in the out of scoreboard. Wings are 1 pt behind 2nd wildcard Columbus with a game in hand but the Wings have a better point percentage.

Tampa beats Ottawa in regulation. NYI beats Florida in regulation. I'll take it. Means the Wings again control their playoff destiny. Tied with Ottawa but with a game in hand. 3 pts behind NYI but with 2 games in hand. So the Wings are still behind NYI, but if the Wings beat Philly they'd pull back to 1 pt behind NYI with 1 game in hand so would be ahead on points %.

If Ottawa and Detroit both win today AND Columbus and NYI both lose in OT/SO AND Pittsburgh and Boston both lose in regulation, there’d be a 6-way tie at 88 pts with 9 games to go.

I read this when people were chatting about Chris Pittaro the other day. https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/april-8-1985-detroits-chris-pittaro-lives-up-to-managers-hype-on-celebratory-opening-day/ But when Pittaro hit well over .300 and displayed good instinctual glove work during spring training, Tigers manager Sparky Anderson raised eyebrows, gushing that Pittaro had “a chance to be the greatest second baseman who ever lived.”4 Anderson was known for talking up young players, sometimes out of proportion to their talent. But in this case, Anderson was so enamored with his prospect that he went beyond verbal hype. In late March he controversially reassigned All-Star Lou Whitaker from second to third base to make room for the youngster.5 The switcheroo was met with consternation by Whitaker (and reportedly some teammates), so Detroit’s skipper backtracked a few days later on his head-scratching move that would have broken up the duo of Whitaker and future Hall of Fame shortstop Alan Trammell – widely regarded as one of the greatest double-play combinations in baseball history.6 Still determined to find a position for the “best rookie infielder [he had] seen in 15 years of managing,” Anderson declared that Pittaro would open the season as the club’s third baseman

Today is massive. Teams #5-#10 in the East have between 86-88 points and all are in action today, none against each other, with start times in waves. Fighting for 4 spots. Recall the Wings need to beat 2 of those other 5 teams, with at least one of the two being Ottawa or Boston. In ( ) are pts Amand games remaining. 1pm ET Ottawa (86,10) at Tampa Florida at NYI (87,9) 5pm ET Minnesota at Boston(88,10) Dallas at Pittsburgh(88,10) San Jose at Columbus (87,10) 8pm ET Philadelphia at Detroit (86,10) So all the five the other teams will have finished play before the Wings start their game. Tampa, Minnesota and Dallas might be the best hopes for doing the Wings a favour. Habs (90,11) have put some distance between them and the Wings but I am still cheering for Nashville to beat them to tighten things up.