Usually when I’m hyping a huge sporting matchup between the areas of Columbus and Detroit, I’m speaking of Ohio State-Michigan football (Ann Arbor is a Detroit suburb). Can’t say I’ve ever previewed an NHL game between the two cities at CBS Sports, but that changes tonight as their matchup from Motown is one of the most important ones on the 11-game slate in terms of the playoffs.
I’ll likely start doing more NHL with the regular season ending April 16, and then I believe there is no more exciting postseason in the majors sports leagues than the Stanley Cup playoffs. As of today, Boston holds the Eastern Conference’s top wild card spot with 95 points and four games to go. The Bruins are getting in. Holding the second spot with 90 points is Ottawa with five games left.
Then we have the New York Islanders first out at 89 points, four games remaining and just having fired their coach – I will probably look at the Isles for their next game Thursday – with the Red Wings and Blue Jackets next in the queue with 88 points apiece and five games left including tonight. Detroit holds that current tiebreaker.Â
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Both teams are trending the absolute wrong way. Columbus lost its sixth straight game Saturday, 2-1 at home to a surging Winnipeg team. The Jackets have managed only 10 total goals during this skid. Interesting that the offense has gone missing as since Rick Bowness replaced the fired Dean Evason as head coach on Jan. 13, Columbus is tied for the NHL lead with 21 game-opening goals in that span.
It blew a 1-0 lead Saturday to see its postseason odds climb to +235 with No at -290. Every team left on the schedule is a potential playoff team, so I say No. The Blue Jackets held a players’ meeting after Saturday and kept the locker room closed for 24 minutes. Injuries have played a role in the recent issues, with guys like Dmitri Voronkov, Mathieu Olivier and Damon Severson out. Â Â
“I’ll just keep our conversation in here because we’re a better team than what we’ve shown and just talked about it,” Blue Jackets star defenseman Zach Werenski said. “We’re not eliminated. We’re still in it and I believe in this group. I believe we can get it done and it’s just doing it. I mean, we did it for two months. The last two weeks obviously haven’t gone our way, but it’s in the room and it’s on us to just pull it out and get it done. But, it starts with one game at a time.”
The Red Wings were one of the blueblood franchises in the league from 1991-2016 as they made the postseason each year but shockingly haven’t been back since – the salary-cap era probably hurt the big-spending Wings more than any other franchise.
On Jan. 21, following a third straight win, Detroit was sitting 31-16-4 and easily in the East playoff field, priced as low as -400 for extra hockey. But the Red Wings have not won back-to-back games since, having dropped six of eight (four in a row on home ice) and 17 of their past 26. While Sunday’s home loss to an excellent Minnesota team was acceptable, Saturday’s defeat at the horrible New York Rangers was not.
“We’ve got to find a way to not let it weigh on us,” Andrew Copp said after Sunday’s game. “We’ve got to (find a way to) free ourselves up. As soon as you let the outside noise and you guys (media) start to impact what we’re doing in here, that’s when issues start to happen. Sometimes it’s just one shift. It’s one goal, and then it gets contagious. Winning is contagious; losing is contagious.”
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The Wings are now +600 for the playoffs with No at -900. Their schedule is easier the rest of the way than the Blue Jackets’ is, with two games vs. non-playoff clubs (New Jersey and Florida) and one vs. a team that might rest guys locked into its seed (Tampa Bay). So I’d say +600 is worth a shot, but they have to win tonight. Detroit has broken out of a major funk once already this season as it was just 5-7-2 in November but then largely took off behind goalie John Gibson until late January.
We did see some history Sunday as future Hall of Famer Patrick Kane factored in on a game-tying goal for the 251st time, which passed Mike Modano for the second-most by an American player in NHL history behind Phil Housley (254 such goals). Kane also passed Luc Robitaille for 25th place on the NHL’s all-time points list with 1,395.
There are a lot of reasons why Detroit has been struggling, as the goaltending has certainly not been up to standards, but the team carries a league-worst 7.3 shooting percentage at five-on-five since Feb. 1. Detroit’s 2.49 goals per game since Jan. 23 ranks 31st in the league.
Head-to-head is not the No. 1 playoff tiebreaker in the NHL but it is among them, and tonight’s winner owns that as it’s their third and final meeting. The first two each went past regulation in the 2025 portion of the schedule, and the home team won.Â
BetRivers same-game parlay (-109)
- Red Wins alt +1
- Alt Under 7.5
I lean the Red Wings winning, but this way am protected in a game that goes past regulation like each of the first two meetings have. Usually, playoff-relevant games this late are lower-scoring as defensive intensity is ratcheted up. And obviously covered on the total should it end 3-3 in regulation. Check out other expert picks in the daily newsletter.Â
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