Wings win, Caps lose? Wings win, Caps win? Wings lose, Caps win? Both teams lose?

There are more scenarios but you get the picture.

My gut says Wings win, Caps score late to tie game, Flyers win in OT.

via the NHL PR department,

Macklin Celebrini (North Vancouver, B.C.), a center from Boston University who was named the 2024 Hobey Baker Memorial Award winner on Friday, remains No. 1 among North American skaters for the 2024 Upper Deck NHL Draft as the NHL Central Scouting Bureau today released its final rankings. Anton Silayev (Sarov, Russia), a 6’7” defenseman, moved up one spot to become the top-ranked international skater.

NEW YORK (April 16, 2024) – The National Hockey League has set an all-time record for total attendance in a single season.

More fans have experienced live the 2023-24 regular season, acclaimed for scoring feats not seen in decades and competitive races right to the wire, than any other in the League's 106-year history.

The eight-game Monday slate pushed the total attendance figure for the 2023-24 regular season to 22,560,634 (1,294 GP), surpassing the previous high of 22,436,532 set in 2022-23. NHL games have played to 97% capacity at the 36 host venues, which include the 32 home arenas plus Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Avicii Arena in Stockholm, T-Mobile Park in Seattle and MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

The 18 games remaining in the 2023-24 regular season, which concludes Thursday, April 18, will add to the record total.

from Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press,

Yes, the Canadiens are a proud and storied franchise. But they are not a good team. They have one win in their past seven games. If Lalonde and the Wings can’t find a way to win Tuesday night, they really don’t deserve to be in the playoffs and they certainly don’t deserve credit just putting up a fight.

more ($)

Below watch the extended game highlights in two parts.

from Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now,

Lucas Raymond was struggling to catch his breath at the same time he was breathing life into the Detroit Red Wings’ playoff hopes Monday night

Raymond and Dylan Larkin had been on the ice for most of overtime when Larkin broke out with the puck on his stick.

“Just saw Larks up ice. I thought he was going for a breakaway first but he was probably pretty tired,” Raymond said. “Then I just tried to jump up. I was pretty tired, too. Then I just tried to get off a shot. Happy it went in.”

Raymond converted Larkin’s cross-ice feed at 4:35 of overtime for his 31st goal of the season to give Detroit a 5-4 win against the Montreal Canadiens. Raymond’s 30th goal — coming with 1:17 left in regulation — extended postseason hopes to at least Tuesday. If the Red Wings beat the Habs in the second game of a home-and-home in Montreal Tuesday and the Philadelphia Flyers defeat Washington, then Detroit qualifies for the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

continued

from Bob Wojnowski of the Detroit News,

* With just 72 hours remaining in the regular season, we still have four teams in the race for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference with the Capitals, Red Wings and Penguins – three teams within one point of one another – all claiming victories Monday.

* Connor McDavid continues to thrill the hockey world: this season it’s with the first 100-assist campaign produced in 33 years, with The Great One the last to do so.

* Both New York teams secured clinches Monday as the Rangers earned the 2023-24 Presidents’ Trophy, while the Islanders became the 15th team to secure a spot in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

* The Capitals and Red Wings will have an opportunity to clinch the final berth into the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs as part of an eight-game Tuesday. Washington will do so with a win, while Detroit will do so with a victory and a Capitals loss of any fashion.

* The 2023-24 campaign set an attendance record Monday after the season total reached 22,560,634, surpassing the previous record set in 2022-23 (22,436,532).

* NHL Central Scouting will release its final rankings for the 2024 Upper Deck NHL Draft today at 11 a.m. ET on NHL.com and Media.NHL.com.

It was 4-2 after 40 minutes but the Wings scored twice in the 3rd to force overtime.

Lucas Raymond wins it in OT.

Teams Stats

Below are the Detroit

Good evening and welcome to all. We are all aware that it’s all on the line tonight. Simply put, win, or set a tee time.

Lyon is in goal. Ras and Copp are out. No mention of Walman. No other changes to the lineup have been announced.

Correction; Copp is in.

It’s the Canadians vs the Red Wings in an Original Six Matchup. The puck is set to drop around 7:00 PM and will be broadcast/simulcast on Bally Sports Detroit Extra and on TV20 (WMYD in Detroit) and on the Red Wings Radio Network WWJ Newsradio (950 AM in Detroit). Also available on ESPN+/NHLPP, SCRIPPS, SPORTSNET+, and RDS.

It’s a Live Blog!

NEW YORK (April 15, 2024) – Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews, Nashville Predators defenseman Roman Josi and Calgary Flames center Nazem Kadri have been named the NHL’s “Three Stars” for the week ending April 14.

from Ansar Khan of Mlive,

The last time the Detroit Red Wings’ home finale meant something was eight years ago at Joe Louis Arena.

Tonight, Little Caesars Arena will be the site of the team’s most important game since 2016 with the Montreal Canadiens in town (7 p.m., Bally Sports Detroit Extra).

And the Red Wings expect a boost from the home crowd as they try to stay alive in the playoff chase.

“The atmosphere here has been remarkable for the two years I’ve been here,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “Last year when we didn’t have quite the same team after the deadline and we still had energetic crowds, found ways to win games down the stretch. This is new territory for our fans, too, to be involved this late with these meaningful games and they’ve certainly showed up and hopefully a boost tonight.”...

“I’m sure it’ll be on fire here,” Patrick Kane said. “The Joe was one of my favorite places to play as a road opponent. Coming in here and playing at the LCA, being on this side of it and playing as it being your home rink, I think it’s a special place to play. I love playing here, I think the fans have been great. The atmosphere is awesome.”

Kane has seen from his many years in Chicago at the boisterous United Center how much difference the crowd can make.

“I think you see it especially in playoffs,” Kane said. “You talk about home-ice advantage. I think it’s really a thing because everyone likes playing in front of their home crowd. You get that energy, that support behind you, it really helps motivate you and take that next step as a player. This is like a playoff game tonight, so I’m sure we’ll be using them as much as possible.”

more

NEW YORK / CHICAGO (April 15, 2024) – The National Hockey League (NHL) today debuted its new campaign for the 2024 Stanley Cup^® Playoffs that highlights some of the crazy things fans do in the name of love for their teams. Three spots will launch today on the NHL’s digital and social media platforms before making their national TV debut tonight during game broadcasts, including the 9:30 p.m. ET Minnesota Wild-Los Angeles Kings game on ESPN.

TORONTO—, Prime Video and NHL Productions reveal the trailer for the upcoming original hockey documentary Saving Sakic, premiering on April 16 for Prime members in Canada (April 17th on ESPN+ in the USA). The documentary follows the high-stakes saga that ensued when Colorado Avalanche Chairman/CEO Charlie Lyons was blindsided by an attempt to sign away the captain of his team, Joe Sakic. With only seven days to raise $15 million to save his star, Charlie finds a lifeline from an unexpected place - Hollywood.

from Ethan Sears of the New York Post,

As messy as the Islanders’ season has been, it’s fairly simple now.

Beat the Devils.

And that’s it.

Beat the Devils and the Islanders will clinch third place in the Metropolitan Division and a likely first-round rematch against the Carolina team which beat them at the same hurdle a year ago.

Beat the Devils and the Islanders will have a chance to erase the exhausting ups and downs of this season.

Beat the Devils and it will not matter that the Islanders have lost more times than they have won this season, or that they hold a negative-21 goal differential, because they will have a chance to make history and memories this spring.

“We were in a tough spot. A lot of people counted us out,” Mathew Barzal told The Post following a short practice on Sunday afternoon. “Came together as a group and have given it everything we have. Every guy in here’s been committed the last three weeks more than I’ve maybe ever seen.”

On March 24 — just three weeks ago — the Islanders were behind the Red Wings, Capitals and Flyers in the standings by three, four and six points, respectively.

continued

from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

The Wings play at 7 p.m. Monday, the same time the Capitals host the Boston Bruins. If the Wings lose in regulation, they're eliminated, because then they max out at 89 points, and either the Capitals or the Philadelphia Flyers — who play each other Tuesday — will get to that amount, and both hold the tiebreaker over Detroit.

That might rattle some teams, but since the Wings endured a seven-game skid through March, they've learned the skill of resilience. They've gone through experiences like playing a strong team game and still losing to the New York Rangers, like going all-out against the Capitals and still losing, and bounced back time and again.

"I think that shows the compete and battle of this group," Lalonde said. "They stay composed, they never give up. They stay on it. It’s been impressive to watch. We’re not a perfect team, we’re far from it, we have a lot of flaws, and we’re building. It’s where we’re at. But this group — they stay in the fight. I’m pretty proud of them."

In the midst of playing five games in eight days, and going into a back-to-back, the Wings took Sunday off to rest and recharge. The path, as Lalonde likes to put it, remains open, and the Wings have a look about them that says they'll pave it to their best ability, foot on the gas, with the knowledge they may need to tip their hats.

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* Tomas Hertl’s overtime winner helped the Golden Knights complete the NHL’s 26th three-goal comeback win this season – the most the League has seen since the record-holding 1989-90 campaign. Vegas is now just one point back of Los Angeles for the Pacific Division’s third seed.

* Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho combined for three straight goals in the third period to help the Hurricanes rally to victory and stay alive in the Presidents’ Trophy Race.

* The Islanders can lock up one of the final two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference while the Rangers will have a chance at securing the Presidents’ Trophy during an eight-game Monday.

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- The general managers I’ve polled believe young Quinn Hughes is the runaway winner of the Norris Trophy, as best defenceman. And in some years, not this one, he’d be an MVP candidate …Bobby Orr is the youngest player ever to win the Norris. He was 19. Then, just to be certain, he won when he was 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26.

- I like the rather complete Carolina Hurricanes to come out of the East. They’re first in the NHL in penalty-killing, second on the power play. Penalty-killing is more important in the playoffs than the power play. But since Jake Guentzel got to the Hurricanes, he has 24 points in 16 games and Carolina has points in 13 of those games.

- Boo-hoo to the players (families) on the Arizona Coyotes already complaining about moving to Salt Lake City. The wives on the Atlanta Flames hated moving to Calgary in 1980. Forty-four years later, that’s a rock-solid franchise and a great place to live. I covered the bankruptcy hearings of the Coyotes in 2009. The NHL should have moved out of Arizona back then.

- Don’t know of anyone who hates losing more than Steve Yzerman. Which would make him all but apoplectic over the last quarter of the Red Wings season.

more notes

from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

There was 2:45 to play in regulation, the game was tied, and the Detroit Red Wings needed at least a point to keep their playoff chase alive. A penalty to Patrick Kane meant dealing with the Toronto Maple Leafs' power play, and Auston Matthews chasing his 70th goal.

Larkin didn't want to miss a second of trying to deny Matthews, of denying the Leafs, of stoking his own team's hopes.

"I think I was on the ice for most of the penalty kill there at the end," he said, "so I was breathing through my eyes and just trying to gut it out."

"We know what’s at stake," Larkin said. "We kept saying, we need the two points. To get to this point, I’m not happy we’re in this position, fighting for our lives, but in Pittsburgh and at home against Washington, we’ve been fighting for our lives here. The sacrifice, the attitude of the guys has been unbelievable. We got rewarded for all the hard work we’ve done the last stretch here where we haven’t been getting rewarded."

read on

NEW YORK –TNT Sports, Warner Bros. Games and the National Hockey League are joining forces to bring viewers a clash of excellence in hockey and real-time animation for the first-ever MultiVersus NHL Face-Off on Sunday, April 14 at 3:30 p.m. ET, exclusively on truTV and Max’s B/R Sports Add-on.

Legendary and beloved Warner Bros. Discovery characters appearing in the highly anticipated MultiVersus videogame, including Bugs Bunny, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, Velma and Shaggy, Steven Universe and Finn the Human, will take center ice in a fully animated presentation featuring a matchup of the two most recent Stanley Cup champions, Colorado Avalanche at Vegas Golden Knights. The slobbery and short-fused Looney Tunes character Tasmanian Devil will officiate the game and drop the puck on the afternoon’s action.

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

The NHL’s anticipated move to Salt Lake City after 28 years of unrequited love in the desert does not mark the end of Gary’s Folly, for we have been told by several members of the industry’s intelligentsia that Arizona will move to the head of the expansion line as if the hypothetical new team can get its arena situation sorted out. That’s a novel concept.

Indeed, there is every chance that when the NHL is ready to dilute its product by adding another two teams and perhaps a sum of another $2 billion to divide among the existing 32 ownerships’ respective bank accounts, Arizona and Atlanta will be waiting to give the league a back-to-the-future vibe. Quebec and Cleveland will have to wait.

Arizona did not fail as an NHL market nearly as much as multiple ownerships failed the market. That is why Gary Bettman won’t put a white flag on his door when it comes to the league’s interest in this Southwest outpost. The land-grab move to Glendale out of downtown Phoenix in 2003 was as predictably a colossal failure as choosing to receive the opening kickoff in overtime of the Super Bowl. A next time would include a pre-existing structure in a community that makes sense (and deferring).

I don’t know that adding Salt Lake City to the Original 32 necessarily adds much cache to the league. But removing this ongoing embarrassment of an eyesore in the desert — that, by the way, had increasingly become a ratcheted-up flashpoint between Marty Walsh’s NHLPA and Ninth Avenue — represents addition by subtraction for the league. The NHL gets to abandon its minor league facility while allowing Rob Manfred’s MLB to move into one of its own in one of the great self-owns in pro sports history.

read on plus other hockey topics of interest...

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News

The Wings could have been eliminated from the playoff race with a loss in regulation Saturday. But with the score tied 4-4 entering the third period, they persevered, then killed off a Toronto power play with 2 minutes, 45 seconds left in regulation time to survive, earn a point in regulation time, then earn the second point on Larkin's overtime goal at 41 seconds of overtime.

"Man, it's one of the biggest goals of my career and I'm hoping this year to have some more big goals," Larkin said. "You can't feel any better. I knew Kaner (Patrick Kane) was going to look for that play and I knew I had my stick on the ice and he was going to hit it. I didn't even see it go in, but I knew Kaner and all the big moments he's had in his career and to see how excited he was and see to all the boys rush over, man, what a feeling."....

"If we win out and don't get there (playoffs), you probably have to tip your hat to someone who won their way through and they would have won against some pretty good competition," Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. "That's why I felt that point (in Pittsburgh Thursday) was so important. If we could hang in there and get five or six points down the stretch we'd have a chance. We have two now and it's on us."...

Goaltender James Reimer, playing his 500th NHL game, stopped 31 shots in earning a huge Wings victory.

"It's special," Reimer said. "On a night like this you want to play well and you want to win. It just makes it that much more special. The way the guys battled and worked and the resiliency they showed after the second period to come back in here and shut it down and play so well in the third period, I'm proud of the guys and how they worked.

more and watch the extended game highlights below...

* The Eastern Conference’s final Wild Card spot changed hands three times in a span of 49 minutes Saturday, with the Penguins holding the position entering play before it was taken by the Flyers (7:30 p.m. ET) and Capitals (8:19 p.m. ET).

* The 13-game slate resulted in just one First Round matchup getting confirmed and one division title being clinched, meaning seven opening-round series, two playoff berths and the Presidents’ Trophy winner will be determined over the final five days of the regular season

* The NHL, TNT Sports and Warner Bros. Games are joining forces to bring viewers a clash of excellence in hockey and real-time animation for the first-ever MultiVersus NHL Face-Off – a simulcast of the Avalanche-Golden Knights game Sunday – exclusively on truTV and Max’s B/R Sports Add-on.