With three regular-season games remaining, the Detroit Red Wings will be trying to keep their slim playoff hopes alive when they host the New Jersey Devils in their home finale Saturday.
Detroit (41-29-9, 91 points) trails the Ottawa Senators by three points for the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
Four other teams are involved in the battle for the postseason and within two points of Detroit. They are the Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders, Columbus Blue Jackets and Washington Capitals, who all could either capture the wild-card spot or make the postseason by finishing third in the Metropolitan Division.
All teams involved in the race have three games left.
The Red Wings, who are 2-4-1 in their last seven, beat the visiting Flyers 6-3 on Thursday.
“That’s only one of four games for us,” said defenseman Moritz Seider, who had a career-high five points (a goal and four assists). “We need to get six more points and see where that puts us.”
Seider became the first Detroit defenseman with five points in a game since Reed Larson on Feb. 27, 1985 and the fourth in franchise history to pull off the feat.
“He does everything and he does it all well most of the time,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “It’s really remarkable when you consider his age (25) and what he has already accomplished in this game.”
Seider is the first Red Wings’ defenseman with 50 assists in a season since Nicklas Lidstrom in 2007-08. He and Lucas Raymond are the first Detroit teammates with 50 assists each since Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk in 2007-08.
Captain Dylan Larkin had a hat trick and an assist for four points, Patrick Kane a goal and two assists and Alex DeBrincat reached 40 goals for the third time in his career against Philadelphia.
“(Seider) can’t have five points every night and (Larkin) can’t have a hat trick every night,” McLellan said. “(DeBrincat) got to 40. We got huge performances from those guys, and that played a huge part of the game.”
Goalie John Gibson left halfway through the game with a stiff neck after stopping 13 of 15 shots. Cam Talbot gave up a goal on 12 shots in relief.
McLellan said he does not think Gibson’s injury is serious, but the team recalled goaltender Michal Postava from AHL Grand Rapids under emergency circumstances.
The Devils (40-36-3, 83 points), who were eliminated from playoff contention on Tuesday, lost 5-2 to the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night for their third loss in four games (1-2-1).
New Jersey, which has three games left, parted ways with general manager Tom Fitzgerald earlier this week and announced on Thursday that it was shutting down defenseman Luke Hughes for the season.
Hughes had been playing with an upper-body injury sustained before the Olympic break. He will undergo surgery.
Paul Cotter and Luke’s brother, Jack Hughes, scored on Thursday and Jake Allen made 25 saves.
“I thought we did a pretty good job of coming back. I think our team has done a pretty good job of that lately,” said Cotter, who is from suburban Detroit. “You could call it hanging in there, but getting to our game pretty quickly.”
–Field Level Media
