Top teams afraid of the Red Wings in the first round?

The top teams in the West want no part of Detroit in the first round of the playoffs.

The scariest team in the NHL – the club no other team wants to come up against in the opening round of the playoffs – isn’t sitting atop the standings in either conference.

Rather, it is perched in the No. 9 spot in the Western Conference and they would be the Detroit Red Wings.

Can you imagine how the San Jose Sharks, with all their previous playoff failures, might feel about facing the suddenly red-hot Red Wings in a best-of-seven showdown? Gulp!

Even the Chicago Blackhawks, who have been one of the NHL’s best and most exciting teams this season, have to be keeping their fingers crossed that the Red Wings stay exactly where they are now – in ninth and on the outside of the playoff scene. When the Hawks and Red Wings met in Chicago March 7, the hosts jumped out to a 2-0 lead only to have the visitors explode for five goals in the second period in a 5-4 Detroit victory.

Some may suggest you can’t read too much into one game and really, all it did was even the season series between the two clubs at two wins apiece, but it might also be taken as something of a statement game. With the Red Wings healthy for the first time this season, they are starting to flex their muscle and other teams had better take notice.

Not that they are perfect by any means.

The Calgary Flames skated into Hockeytown and delivered something of a statement game themselves on Tuesday, beating the Red Wings 4-2. Also, the Vancouver Canucks, who have high expectations of a long playoff run themselves, doubled up the Wings 6-3 in Detroit on March 3.

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