The Detroit Red Wings could have their team captain back in action when they host the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.
Dylan Larkin, who missed the past seven games due to a lower-body injury, participated in practice on Monday and is considered a game-time decision.
“I’m confident that he is improving,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “He’s confident that he is improving. He had a good practice (Monday), but I can’t tell you if he’ll be in (the lineup) or not. I don’t know that answer right now.”
Fighting to end their nine-year postseason drought, the Red Wings (38-24-8, 84 points) desperately need their first-line center back in action. They have gone 3-3-1 without him and are now on the outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture, one point behind the New York Islanders.
“Ever since he’s been down, it’s been a big hole in the lineup,” Red Wings forward Patrick Kane said. “As our leader and captain, too. A lot of us wanted to play for him in some way or another and put us in a good enough spot so when he’s coming back, we’re still in the thick of things. I’m not sure what his status is going forward, but it’s always great to see him out there.”
The Red Wings hoped to avoid a third consecutive March swoon this year, but they have gone 4-4-2 this month while other contenders have continued to surge.
Detroit took a costly home loss against one of those teams, Boston, on Saturday. The Red Wings led 2-1 early in the third period before the Bruins scored three unanswered goals.
Ottawa (37-24-9, 83 points) has gone 8-2-1 this month to force its way into the playoff race, two points back of the Islanders and one back of the Red Wings. The Senators are 14-3-2 in the past 19 games.
“They’re a good team,” said Detroit forward David Perron, who was acquired from the Senators earlier this month. “Solid defensively, very structured. I’m not too surprised (about the Senators’ recent hot streak). It seems their game doesn’t waver from whether you get the result or not.
“When I was there, at times it felt we were playing some real good hockey for a long period of time and we just weren’t getting the results. It was frustrating, but the impressive part was we kept on going. They keep on going right now, and they’ve put themselves back in the picture.”
The Senators stretched their winning streak to three games on Monday with a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers. The score was not indicative of how well Ottawa played. The Senators had a 33-9 advantage in shots on goal, setting a franchise record for the fewest shots on goal permitted in a game.
Ottawa is dealing with some injuries on defense, but it hasn’t affected the club’s playoff push.
“Nothing changes for us,” forward Claude Giroux said, according to NHL.com. “We stay focused on how we want to play and our identity and play as a team. Right now we have everybody going, we have all lines playing a lot, so we’ve got to keep pushing.
“I think we don’t need to do anything special out there, just play our game and be consistent in how we’re playing the game, and I think we’ve been doing that, giving ourselves a chance to win pretty much every game, so we’ve just got to keep playing like that.”
