Fun game at least. Wins and losses matter not to me at this point. 

The folks at BSD have had a busy day, hopefully post game talk becomes available soon.

With nothing to play for the wings are playing loose and I do not mean defensively. They are finally scoring goals and having fun. Too bad it does not count.

from Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now,

Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman suggested at the NHL trade deadline that his team isnt truly competing against Tampa Bay, or Boston, or Toronto.

Our competition we gotta be looking at is Buffalo, Ottawa, Yzerman said in that press conference. These guys are young. Even Montreal with a lot of picks, a lot of good, young players, thats the groups of teams we gotta be watching, because when theyre good, were hoping to be good as well.

His declaration seemed particularly meaningful Thursday when the team lost 7-6 in a shootout to the Buffalo Sabres and were officially eliminated from the playoff race by the New York Islanders 6-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning. This is the seventh consecutive season the Red Wings have failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Mixed Feelings

Are the Red Wings, disappointed? Yes. Are the Red Wings optimistic about the future? Thats also a Yes. Its as if the Red Wings dont exactly know how to feel about this season. They are already have five more points than they had last season and they are improved in many ways. But they are still 20-plus points from being one of the divisions best teams.

I think theres certainly more hope for next season, Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said. Again tonights game we had the message where were gonna be battling with these guys. We werent good against them this year but tonight was certainly better. It was certainly a better battle level. We were much more engaged tonight.

continued

Much longer version of Larkin and Lalonde

Buffalo scored 24 goals against us in 4 games this season

I am unhappy with Larkin in this last game.  He left his man at the end of the 2nd to chase after someone while the play was still going and his man scored.  His antics then gave BUF a power-play that scored.  This all in the last 3 minutes of the 1st period.  He cause a 2-1 DET lead to turn into a 3-2 BUF lead.  Well, we tied the game but in OT Larkin lost all four face-offs he had, which gave puck possession to BUF.  Not good in a 5 min period.

This was a very bad game for Larkin and I hope he learns from it.  Sigh...