Red Wings 2026 April Game Thread

[Mr.TaterSalad]

Who is a shmuck sitting behind a keyboard like me to question the toughness of any athlete, let alone a hockey player. But this is ridiculous. Year after year, end of season, after end of season, this team looks weak and completely collapses.

[lordstanley]

Go Tigers, go Pistons, go Habs. 

[buddha]

they deserved to be booed.

what a terrible team finish.

[buddha]

i'll repeat what we all said last year: i hope that is the last we see of michael rasmussen in a red wings jersey.

if so, he'll finish his career getting scratched for AHL old boy Dominick Shine. Ras completes this season with a whopping 14 points in 64 games.  in his last 5 wings games, he has 0 points and 0 shots on goal.

[buddha]

marco kasper finishes with 8 goals in 78 games.  he had 2 goals and 3 assists in the months of march and april.  18 points on the season.

 

[buddha]

Everyone clamored for the great carter mazur to come up.  well, come up he did.  

in the last six games on the season mazur finished with 0 goals, 0 assists, 0 points, and a whopping 3 shots on goal.

[buddha]

if they fired mcclellan i wouldnt be surprised.  this is probably their worst collapse in a long time.  even worse than last year.

there must be something going on that this happens every year.  what's up with that locker room?  

its hilarious that they bring back 50 year old david perron and he leads the team in shots in this must win game.  the dude cant skate, has almost no skills left, and he puts all these young players to shame by just trying hard.

they must have felt the locker room needed a guy like him.  if so, what does that say about larkin?  or anyone else on the team?  theyre just floating along?  mcclellan calls them all out and what happens?  nothing.  

cant change all the players so mcclellan probably gets the axe.

[lordstanley]

I’m giving up on hockey. Still want to cheer for a team in red though.  Go Red WaterWings Go!

 

Edited April 12 by lordstanley

[lordstanley]

 

[Hongbit]

8 minutes ago, lordstanley said:

 

Probably time to put old Ken Kal out to pasture as well.  His words just aren’t getting it done anymore.   10 years of the same taglines and catchphrases obviously haven’t been good enough.

[Motor City Sonics]

1 hour ago, Sports_Freak said:

Time for a management change?

Everyone needs to be fired.  The entire front office and the entire coaching staff and they need to get rid of as many players as they can.   Keep Mo..........don't care about the rest.      This is an absolute disgrace.  

[Motor City Sonics]

Red Wings mascot.  

Edited April 12 by Motor City Sonics

[buddha]

For once, MCS's ridiculously over the top hyperbole overreaction is justified.

[Motor City Sonics]

We knew this playoff elimination was coming a while ago, but can't beat Ottawa, no matter how good or bad Ottawa is and then to lose the Rangers, the worst team in the conference.   And how many blown leads in the third period just in the last month - about 7 ?     This is as bad as it gets, man.     A ****ing DECADE with no playoffs in a league where HALF the damn teams make the playoffs.    They need to erase that HOCKEYTOWN crap off the ice.   That's a bunch of B.S.    Only time you can watch decent hockey with the Red Wings is You Tube highlights - when the team had some actual grit and heart.    (Calling that arena Hockeytown is like bragging about the term Motor City where nobody can afford car insurance and the roads are an obstacle course.  

Seriously, Mo Seider is the only guy I even care about keeping.   Larkin, Raymond, DeBrincat, Kane - all of them - just go away.   And whomever pointed out the Kasper thing.  What the hell happened to him?    Nothing from the 3rd  and 4th lines.   Just get rid of everyone.   I know that means sinking to the bottom for at least another 3 years, but that's better than getting your heart ripped out EVERY SINGLE MARCH !

Edited April 12 by Motor City Sonics

[Motor City Sonics]

It sucks when you hire a team icon in a position like that because it will tarnish their legacy a little bit.    I think Alan Trammell escaped it because his rosters were bad and not his fault.   But Dumars - who actually started out great - his legacy was ruined, sadly and the Pistons need to offer an olive branch to him now that they are good again.  But, yeah, this spoils Yzerman's legacy.    Just don't hire any former Red Wings to run things again.  Just hire the best people they can find.  Not sure I trust Chris Illitch there.      Betweeen this and the Tigers and Lions late season collapses, it's been rough.  I hope the Pistons don't let us down in the playoffs.  No indication they are slowing down and there's no reason to think they won't rep the East in the FInals.   Don't think they have a snowball's chance against OKC or San Antonio, but getting there two seasons after 14 wins would be incredible. 

Edited April 12 by Motor City Sonics

[Motor City Sonics]

So, with this being the last home game, did they do the whole center ice raise their sticks thing?   Should have raised golf clubs. 

[Jason_R]

I don’t expect Mac to go. They made a marginal improvement this year. This is clearly a roster issue. They just aren’t hard to play against. They do not wear people down. By the end of the game, you want your opponent to be so tired of playing against you that they can’t wait to get off the ice. Instead, by the end of the game the Wings have given their best effort and don’t have enough grit or talent to hang on. 

[Jason_R]

Yes, if you aren’t scoring, you need to be hitting. 

[buddha]

13 minutes ago, Jason_R said:

Yes, if you aren’t scoring, you need to be hitting. 

how do they get rid of ras and compher?  youre going to cut and stretch both of them?

they attached a second round pick to get rid of jake walman, who was actually GOOD!  What asset would you have to attach to get rid of those two?

[Sports_Freak]

2 hours ago, buddha said:

if they fired mcclellan i wouldnt be surprised.  this is probably their worst collapse in a long time.  even worse than last year.

there must be something going on that this happens every year.  what's up with that locker room?  

its hilarious that they bring back 50 year old david perron and he leads the team in shots in this must win game.  the dude cant skate, has almost no skills left, and he puts all these young players to shame by just trying hard.

they must have felt the locker room needed a guy like him.  if so, what does that say about larkin?  or anyone else on the team?  theyre just floating along?  mcclellan calls them all out and what happens?  nothing.  

cant change all the players so mcclellan probably gets the axe.

How about Stevie? His seat has to be hot.

[Hongbit]

18 minutes ago, buddha said:

how do they get rid of ras and compher?  youre going to cut and stretch both of them?

they attached a second round pick to get rid of jake walman, who was actually GOOD!  What asset would you have to attach to get rid of those two?

They can buyout Compher and save $3m against the cap the next 2 years.  More importantly, he won’t be playing for them anymore.  

[Jason_R]

6 minutes ago, buddha said:

how do they get rid of ras and compher?  youre going to cut and stretch both of them?

they attached a second round pick to get rid of jake walman, who was actually GOOD!  What asset would you have to attach to get rid of those two?

I know the first part of that tweet is wishful thinking. I’ve been saying for months that the rebuild doesn’t end until CCR contracts are up.

The second part of the tweet is true: if you aren’t scoring, you better be hitting. This year’s bottom six hasn’t done either. 

[Sports_Freak]

1 hour ago, Motor City Sonics said:

It sucks when you hire a team icon in a position like that because it will tarnish their legacy a little bit.   

Exactly this. I think Stevie has already had a couple/few extra years because of who he is. I admit, I was excited by his hiring, especially with his success in Tampa Bay. He did start out with a bare cupboard in Detroit and he had some bad draft luck but...enough is enough.

[Jason_R]

4 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Exactly this. I think Stevie has already had a couple/few extra years because of who he is. I admit, I was excited by his hiring, especially with his success in Tampa Bay. He did start out with a bare cupboard in Detroit and he had some bad draft luck but...enough is enough.

Don’t forget Stevie drafted Mo Seider, well ahead of when everyone thought he would go, and he is now the team’s cornerstone and a Norris Trophy contender. Raymond is a legitimate scorer and the second-leading scorer of his draft year. Edvinsson and Seider are by some measures the best defensive pairing in the league. Some of the prospects are TBD, but they are getting their chance.

If just one of Kenny’s first round picks other than Larkin had been a good one, this team would have been in the playoffs three years ago. And go back and look at how much talent Kenny overlooked, including several players the Wings were looking to trade for this year. 

[buddha]

9 hours ago, Jason_R said:

Don’t forget Stevie drafted Mo Seider, well ahead of when everyone thought he would go, and he is now the team’s cornerstone and a Norris Trophy contender. Raymond is a legitimate scorer and the second-leading scorer of his draft year. Edvinsson and Seider are by some measures the best defensive pairing in the league. Some of the prospects are TBD, but they are getting their chance.

If just one of Kenny’s first round picks other than Larkin had been a good one, this team would have been in the playoffs three years ago. And go back and look at how much talent Kenny overlooked, including several players the Wings were looking to trade for this year. 

its been seven years, this is no longer kenny's problem.  this year's collapse was on yzerman.

in seven years you cant get a decent second pair that doesnt get caved in regularly?

in seven years you cant get a scoring wing to go along with larkin/raymond?

i love stevie and i acknowledge that he was put into a tremendous hole by kenny and bad lottery luck but come on.

kenny didnt make him miss on 5 of his six second round picks in his first two years.  kenny didnt make him sign compher to a ridiculously long deal or rasmussen for any amount of time.  he's spent his years in detroit not "overpaying" for impact players (in his words) but then overpays for marginal talent like copp, compher, and chairot.  

regardless, its been seven years and the team has failed time and again.  its HIS team now.  this is his failure.