Remember what it is like when the Detroit Red Wings make the playoffs?
It was a tradition for a quarter of a century, a yearly given come April on par with taxes being due. Then the franchise sank into a rebuild, and missing the playoffs in 2017 turned into a seven-year event. Now it looks like, at last, the Wings might really make it past the regular season. They enter the final three weeks with a berth within their grasp — much more so than in previous years, when they were still in it mathematically, but not realistically.
“I think it feels special, but it also feels real,” Moritz Seider said. “We earned it to be in this position. We just have to put nerves or excitement by the side and grind. Every game is a playoff game for us and hopefully we can build momentum and be ready for something we’ve all been waiting for. It’s a lot more fun playing intense games now and hopefully be part of a cool experience here.”
ROAD WARRIORS? With Dylan Larkin back, Red Wings ready to ‘eat any point’ on 5-game trip
The Wings (36-29-6) began a five-game road trip Saturday with a 1-0 loss to the Nashville Predators, but it was a performance that more times than not will lead to banking points; the tight result against a red-hot Western Conference foe should build confidence on a trip where success is crucial to bringing playoff hockey to Detroit.
The only homegrown — that is, drafted and developed by Detroit — Red Wing on the team that made the postseason in 2016 is Dylan Larkin. Back then, he was a rookie, and the Wings were playing at Joe Louis Arena; now he’s a nine-year veteran with the captain’s “C” on his sweater and the Wings are still waiting for their first playoff game at Little Caesars Arena. When he returned from an eight-game absence, during which the Wings went 2-6, Larkin spoke about how hard it was to watch his team squander the leeway built up during January and February, which had the Wings sitting in the East’s first wild-card berth.
“It was extremely challenging, but I think we’re all in this together,” he said. “Every season is long and things happen and whatnot. We have a special group and we showed it. I never question our care, or how much guys care for each other and the team in that room, and I knew we would come out of this and turn…