Red Wings go From Best to Worst

Any way you slice it, right now, the siutation is dire for the Detroit Red Wings.

NHL coaches like to divide a season up into five and 10-game segments. There was a time during Todd McLellan’s tenure as coach of the team that the Red Wings were showing up as the NHL’s best team over some of those 10-game segments since he took over in late December.

Lately, though, the Wings have done a 180. They’ve gone into a nose dive.

Over the past 10 games. Detroit is the worst team in the NHL.

The Red Wings are 2-8 in that span. The only other team coming close to that level of dismal is the Philadelphia Flyers (2-7-1).

There are six other clubs with just three wins in the past 10 games. Each of those squads, along with Detroit and Philly, are sharing the same fate. None are holding down a playoff spot.

Now is the time of year when the good teams are ramping things up. They are securing their positions in the postseason.

The Wings are merely fading away.

Too often at key moments of games when they need to make a push, Detroit is being shoved aside.

“We gotta got to find a way to start winning hockey games,” captain Dylan Larkin said following Tuesday’s 4-1 road loss against the Washington Capitals.

Much Going Wrong For Red Wings

In six of the past 10 games, the Red Wings have allowed four or more goals. Over seven of those games, they’ve failed to score more than two goals.

Tuesday, Detroit and Washington were deadlocked 1-1 entering the third period. Washington scored three unanswered goals for the win.

When we needed a goal, he in-dubie-tably made the call#ALLCAPS | @Verizon pic.twitter.com/kv4AQX4IHg

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 19, 2025

“We’re right there in that game and we got to find a way to get points,” Larkin said. “Very similar feeling to the last time we were in here.”

On March 7, another game that was part of this 10-game skid, Detroit carried a 2-1 lead into the third period at Washington. The Capitals would rally for a 5-2 victory.

In both games, a brief lapse of focus in the final period sent the Red Wings spiraling to defeat.

30 AT 30 FOR WILLY pic.twitter.com/lAJQJN6bcQ

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 19, 2025

“We pushed a first-place hockey club, 100-point team and had every opportunity to try and come away with the victory,” McLellan said. “But it feels like we’ve lost it by so much. But that wasn’t the case. It was a four- or five-minute span in the game that cost us.”

Is it ever costing them. The Wings have fallen seven points behind Ottawa, which holds the first of two Eastern Conference Wild Card playoff spots. Ottawa lost 6-3 to Montreal on Tuesday. That moved the Canadiens into the second Wild Card with 73 points, three more than the Red Wings.

Montreal also is holding a game in hand on Detroit. And there are three other teams – the New York Rangers, New York Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets – all between Detroit and Montreal in the standings.