from Ansar Khan of Mlive,

In the grand scheme, losing the season finale Saturday gave the Detroit Red Wings a slightly better chance, however small, to win the draft lottery, or at least draw into the top three.

But this isn’t how they envisioned the season ending, getting blown out 7-1 by the Buffalo Sabres at Little Caesars Arena, given how hard they have competed in recent weeks.

They didn’t want this kind of performance as their lasting memory heading into a long off-season. But they prefer to think they are closer to the team that had won six in a row and seven-of-eight down the stretch, not the one that ended it this way.

“It’s disappointing,” Dylan Larkin said. “It was like a pond hockey game. They wanted it more. It was a pretty forgettable night. It’s tough, especially with the way we’ve been playing in the past couple of weeks, to finish like this.”

continued

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,