from Sean McIndoe of The Athletic,

So today, we’re going to break out a gimmick I’ve tried a few times in the past and see if we can come up with three positive thoughts for each of the 15 teams that will miss the playoffs. That’s it — no nitpicking, no complaining, just three nice things to say about each team.

Detroit Red Wings

The negative: They’re going to miss the playoffs for the fifth straight year, and while their record will be better than it was during last year’s disaster, it’s on pace to be worse than in any of the first three years of the rebuild.

Positive thought #1: They finally escaped the bottom five! That was good, right? (Please don’t read this week’s rankings, where they might be right back in.)

Positive thought #2: The whole Yzerplan thing is going slowly, sure, but progress is being made. They’ve got some prospect help on the way, a ton of picks this year, lots of cap room to work with, and (maybe) a new set of eyes behind the bench to help it all along. The pain isn’t over yet, but you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and Red Wings fans seem like they’re willing to be patient.

Positive thought #3: The new draft lottery system means they’ll only drop two spots this year instead of the customary three.

14 more ($$$) teams...

Watch the incident below.

THREE HARD LAPS

* Sebastian Aho found the score sheet yet again to help the NHL-leading Hurricanes pad their lead in the standings and extend their point streak to 12 games.

* Sidney Crosby leads the NHL with 151 three-point games since debuting in 2005-06 and helped Pittsburgh overtake Washington for first place in the MassMutual East Division.

* Connor McDavid inched closer to 100 points in 2020-21 and Leon Draisaitl scored twice as the duo collected multiple points in the same game for the 18th time this season.