Red Wings Playoff Tracker 2026

[lordstanley]

The Wings have gone 6-8-3 for 15 points in the past 17 games starting January 27. That's a 44.1% points percentage. For the entire season, the only team with a points percentage lower than 44.1% is Vancouver with 36.2%.

Here's the position of the Wings on January 26 vs other conference teams compared to today:

Tampa: Was 1 pt behind, now 7 points behind. So from -1 to -7

Carolina: Was tied, now 12 points behind. So from 0 to -12.

Buffalo: +6 to -11

Pittsburgh: +6 to -2

Montreal: +6 to -2

Boston: +6 to -2

NYI: +8 to -1

Philadelphia: +12 to +4

Washington: +12 to +5

Columbus: +14 to -1

Ottawa: +14 to -3

The only teams in the East the Wings have more points than since January 26 are 3 points more than Florida and 1 point more than Toronto. The only team in the West the Wings have more points than since January 26 are 5 points than Vancouver. That's it. They've played like a bottom 5 for a stretch as long as 1/5 of the season.

[Jason_R]

It was good to get Copp back. It will be better to get Larkin back. It looked like he was a full go at practice and is now a gametime decision. 

The Boston game was disappointing. They outplayed Boston. They had one goal waved off by a fraction of a second. Swayman stood on his head. Somehow Boston ended up with 1:53 of a two-man advantage AND a penalty shot. 

I still think Detroit gets in. 

[slothfacekilla]

 

[lordstanley]

Wings host Ottawa tonight, now just a point up on the Sens with the same number of games played. 12 games left for both. Wings need to stay ahead of the Sens and beat out one of the five underlined teams below in order to make the playoffs. Best hopes for help tonight are probably Carolina and Colorado.

Games to watch tonight and hope for losses:

Toronto at Boston (2pts up on Detroit, same number of games played)

Carolina at Montreal (2 pts up on Detroit, one game in hand on the Wings)

Chicago at NYI (1 pt up on Detroit, one game in hand for the Wings)

Columbus (1 pt up on Detroit, same number of games played) at Philadelphia

Colorado at Pittsburgh (2 pts up on Detroit, same number of games played)

Buffalo, Tampa and Carolina are now well beyond reach of the Wings and not worth tracking. Philadelphia (4 pts behind Detroit, one game in hand on the Wings) and Washington (5 pts behind Detroit, one game in hand for the Wings) are the least of the Wings' troubles.

Edited Tuesday at 11:02 PM by lordstanley

[lordstanley]

Can't blame the out of town scoreboard tonight. While Columbus and Montreal won, the Wings were gifted regulation losses by Pittsburgh, NYI and Boston. The door was open ... 

[lordstanley]

Ilitch and Yzerman have failed by not convincing the NHL governors to switch to a 60-game, 5-month regular season.

[Shinzaki]

6 minutes ago, lordstanley said:

Can't blame the out of town scoreboard tonight. While Columbus and Montreal won, the Wings were gifted regulation losses by Pittsburgh, NYI and Boston. The door was open ... 

And as usual..they failed to step through it.  This roster is stagnant...

[Jason_R]

kasper, danielson, ASP, MBN all  had the chance to give the roster a jolt. Nobody has done it. 

[lordstanley]

Sabres lose once in a blue moon ...so they do so tonight against Boston. Bruins now 4 pts up on Detroit. 

[lordstanley]

A new milestone in a bad way in the Wings are now no longer a win away from the playoff cut line. With NYI's win over Dallas last night, the Islanders are 3 up on the Wings, although the Wings do have 2 games in hand. The Wings also have to pass Ottawa and with Ottawa's OTL last night the Wings are 2 behind Ottawa with a game in hand - the Sens are way ahead on the tiebreaker.

What a difference a week makes. Recall last Friday morning there were 6 teams with either 84 or 83 points: Montreal, Pittsburgh, Boston and Detroit with 84 and Columbus and NYI with 83. Since then Montreal has picked up 6 pts, Boston and Pittsburgh and Columbus and NYI have picked up 4 pts and the Wings are stuck on 84 pts with 0 points since then.

Two NHL games tonight, one is irrelevant and the other is Wings at Sabres, where the Wings will be big underdogs.

 

 

[lordstanley]

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.

Edited Saturday at 03:18 PM by lordstanley

[lordstanley]

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.  

[lordstanley]

4 hours ago, lordstanley said:

1pm ET

Ottawa (86,10) at Tampa

Florida at NYI (87,9)

 

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 %. 

[lordstanley]

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. 
 

[1984Echoes]

16 minutes ago, lordstanley said:

San Jose scores late to beat Columbus in regulation while Dallas doubles Pittsburgh in regulation...

Nice...!

But Detroit grabbing two points this game is even more important...

IMO.

They need wins...

[lordstanley]

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. 

[buddha]

2 hours ago, lordstanley said:

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. 

honestly, i've lost interest.  i just assume theyre going to roll over and lose.

(until they win a game and then i'm right back in it)

[lordstanley]

19 minutes ago, buddha said:

honestly, i've lost interest.  i just assume theyre going to roll over and lose.

(until they win a game and then i'm right back in it)

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. 

[buddha]

45 minutes ago, lordstanley said:

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. 

its depressing.  three years in a row its the same thing.

will larkin cry about not getting enough help at the deadline this year?

yzerman really needs someone - anyone - outside of seider/raymond/edvinsson to step up and do something.  and if theyre not, ****ING TRADE THEM FOR SOMETHING.

and quite frankly, can lucas raymond get some stick?  doesnt your supposed best offensive player need to step it up?  i know what happened two years ago, but he's been pretty quiet this year and last when they needed him.

[Shinzaki]

This team wouldn't even be sniffing the playoffs without Cat.,.he's their best fwd this year.  Larkin and Raymond are barely noticeable out there of late.

The fact that this team is so "blah" when the important game roll around in March is a definite sign that some major changes need to be made

[buddha]

raymond is young, on a great contract, and has provided nothing the last two years in crunch time?

would you trade him?  you could get a king's ransom for him.

as mad as i am at him, i probably wouldnt deal him.  he's still young.  if they could get a guy like tuch to be on line one, it might be different.  i supppse that's what mbn or bear is supposed to eventually be.

trying to thread the needle between larkin/debrincat's prime and seider/raymond's prime is proving difficult.

[slothfacekilla]

Even thinking about trading Raymond seems crazy to me, it feels like the Maple Leafs getting rid of Marner and their fans thinking their team actually improved because of it.

[buddha]

50 minutes ago, slothfacekilla said:

Even thinking about trading Raymond seems crazy to me, it feels like the Maple Leafs getting rid of Marner and their fans thinking their team actually improved because of it.

marner is a much better player than raymond.

i love lucas.  i want him to succeed.  but if the wings are going to challenge for stanley cups, he needs to be one of the best players on the ice.  right now he's not.

can he grow into that?  i hope so.

as everyone here has said ad nauseum, the wings dont have enough elite talent and they dont hsve enough hard players.  right now raymond is neither.

hopefully he grows into it.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

The only way I'm trading Raymond is if I'm bringing in a new GM and starting the rebuild all over. I'm trading Raymond if I have a new regime, tanking for a top pick in the draft.

Edited 2 hours ago by Mr.TaterSalad

[lordstanley]

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.