Red Wings End Drought

The Detroit Red Wings have finally ended their playoff drought! Despite a 4 game losing streak in their final 5 games of the season, the Wings were able to lock up a playoff spot when Columbus lost their final game of the season, and followed it up by clinching the 1st Wildcard spot with a win over the Penguins in their final game of the season. 

The Wings had competed for top place in the Daigle division for much of the year but a mediocre performance after the trade deadline resulted in the Wings having to fight for their playoff lives down the stretch, rather than fighting for home ice advantage like originally hoped. However, after 5 straight seasons without a single playoff game, the long-suffering fans in Detroit are happy to have a spot in the playoffs and hoping the Wings start performing more like the team they've showed they could be. 

Their reward for a hard-fought season: a 1st round matchup against the formidable Philadelphia Flyers, who tied for the Eastern Conference lead with 103 points.

The Flyers have a strong 1st line featuring one of the league's top players, TJ Oshie, who is coming off a 51 goal 123 point regular season, as well as Jeff Skinner, a 40 goal 107 point player this season, and Nazem Kadri, another point per game player with the Flyers. Their 2nd line is very effective, the defense led, by Keith Yandle and Jared Spurgeon, is strong, and Pekka Rinne is one of the top goalies in the league. The Wings will have their work cut out for them.

Keys to the Series:

-The Flyers feature a number of ex-Wings acquired in recent trades: Jared Spurgeon, Blake Coleman, Korbinian Holzer, and Brett Kulak. We'll wait and see if any of these players burn the organization that deemed them expendable.

-The Flyers' powerplay is lethal, so one of the keys to the series will be the Wings' ability to stay out of the box (looking at you Buff), and capitalize on their own powerplays.

-Both clubs sport top tier goalies in Lehner and Rinne, if one of them can put on a show they could singlehandedly turn the tide of the series

-Detroit Free Press

*Update: The Wings lost Game 1 in regulation 4-3, and lost Andrew MacDonald to injury. He is expected to miss the rest of the series. The Wings' 3rd line of Kreider-Sobotka-Teravainen were a dismal -3 and Burns struggled in his first game back from injury, but the top two lines looked good and Neal Pionk played a great game. The Wings will look to regroup in Game 2 and coach Montgomery is expected to shuffle the lines in search of better chemistry on the 3rd line.