The Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers failed to gain ground in the playoff race Tuesday, but they get another opportunity when the teams square off Thursday in Philadelphia.
Detroit (39-27-8, 86 points) and Philadelphia (37-25-12, 86 points) both trail the Columbus Blue Jackets by two points for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Red Wings and Flyers both have eight games remaining, including another matchup in Detroit next week.
The Red Wings are coming off a 5-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins — their fourth defeat in five games and their seventh loss in the last 10 outings.
John Gibson was pulled for the second straight game, this time after allowing three first-period goals. Cam Talbot came on in relief and could be in line to get the start Thursday, when Detroit aims to steady the ship after a 5-7-2 March.
“We’ll write our own story,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “We’ve written it. The book is closed on March now. We move to April. … There’s teams that are elevating right now and there’s teams that aren’t, and right now, we’re one of them that aren’t.”
Dylan Larkin scored the lone goal for the Red Wings — marking his sixth career 30-goal season — but it wasn’t nearly enough.
“Seems to be a different story every night,” Larkin said. “That’s a tough one, but I think when you come to the rink, you put your equipment on and it’s hockey, no matter what time of the year. It gets elevated this time of the year, but you have to make plays, you have to want the puck on your stick.”
Philadelphia has been trending in the other direction, with six wins in seven games entering Tuesday’s matchup in Washington. However, the Flyers were outgunned by the Capitals, 6-4, as their eight-game road winning streak came to an end.
“It’s frustrating,” Philadelphia winger Travis Konecny said. “Just on to the next game. We’ve been playing some really good hockey and we’re just going to keep applying pressure. That’s all we can do.”
Travis Sanheim and Christian Dvorak each notched a goal and an assist for the Flyers, who were tied with the Capitals 2-2 before allowing a pair of second-period power-play goals.
“I liked a lot of our game,” Sanheim said. “I thought we had a lot of good looks. Just couldn’t outscore our mistakes tonight. And then, obviously, giving up two on their power play hurt us as well.”
The teams also met last week in Detroit, as all three of their meetings this season take place between March 28 and April 9. The Flyers won the first matchup 5-3 as they zipped to a 4-0 lead — highlighted by Owen Tippett’s hat trick — before allowing three late goals. With things getting dicey, Sean Couturier deposited an empty-netter to seal the win.
“You can’t get behind 4-0 and expect to come back,” Detroit’s Alex DeBrincat said that night. “You can’t have games like that at this time of the season.”
