What the Red Wings Can Learn from the Detroit Tigers' Playoff Run

When Detroit Tigers infielder Andy Ibáñez’s double brought three runners home in Wednesday’s wildcard game against the Houston Astros, he and the Tigers were living the dream of every athletic underdog.

Way back in August, the Tigers had a 0.2% probability of making the playoffs, but they didn’t fold under gloomy forecasts. They rallied with a 33-16 run since then, becoming one of the hottest teams in baseball to end the year. And after shutting the door defensively to make that double a wildcard series winner, the Tigers punched their ticket to the American League Divisional Series to further build on their underdog story.

For the fellow Ilitch-owned Detroit Red Wings, seeing their baseball siblings win out has been riveting.

“All the boys, we’re all tuning in, watching, cheering for them all the time,” defenseman Ben Chiarot said Sept. 27. “… It’s great for the city. Detroit’s such a good sports city, I think you saw that last year with the Lions and our sort of run toward a playoff spot last year. It’s a great sports city, and especially when a team’s having some success, it’s a fun place to be as an athlete.”

These are playoff dreams that any athlete lives for. It wasn’t too long ago — about six months — that the Red Wings themselves were also trying to live them. After being counted out by oddsmakers all season, and after a seven-game losing streak saw their playoff chances slip into dire straits, the hockey team put together an inspiring 8-5-3 run to end last season. The run included playing in four straight overtime games, winning three. But the run ended in heartbreak: Detroit tied the Washington Capitals in points, but it missed the final eastern conference wild card spot by rule of a tiebreaker. Their Cinderella story wasn’t meant to be.

The heartbreak of such a missed opportunity fueled Detroit’s returners all offseason, something players stewed on all summer as they prepared to make it right this season by actually grasping a playoff spot. Even if management won’t say this season is playoffs or bust, that’s the mentality of a lot of players. And if they want an example of how to overcome the odds, they can look no further than their neighbors at Comerica Park.

Seeing the Tigers win out offers some inspiration for the Red Wings. In the case of both teams, they have mightily struggled for the greater part of the past decade, going through to-the-studs rebuilds that left both teams in dire straits. Both are up-and-coming in the sense of key prospects, gotten as rewards for those listless seasons, reaching pro maturation. And even if the outcome of their respective late-season pushes differs, each made respectable playoff pushes to end the season that put their mettle to the test.

“I think the Tigers might be a year ahead of schedule. Last year, we may have been probably a year ahead of schedule, but unfortunately, we didn’t finish the job,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said Sept. 27. “The difference is they did that. So I think our guys know who we are. We’ve taken natural progressions over the last two years, and we want to keep pushing that forward.”

The Tigers finished the job, but the Red Wings also experienced their own similar playoff push even if the result differed, In the process, they learned a lot about what it takes to win playoff hockey games, the intensity required to compete for a Stanley Cup playoff spot as well as the importance of every game throughout the season.

These lessons are apparent from the Tigers’ run, and they are ones that the Red Wings can take to heart as they try to make the postseason themselves. In either team’s case, winning or losing any game on the schedule would have produced different results at the end of the season. For baseball or hockey, a win at the start of the season is worth the same as one at the end.

But even when the road gets difficult, when games are hard to win and the prospects of a season don’t look so great, it’s important in any sport not to give up hope. That’s how the Tigers became the hottest team in baseball to end the season, stringing together a 33-16 record since their gloomy playoff forecast on August 5.

“It’s just a lesson on believability,” Lalonde said. “It’s pretty neat that it’s the Tigers, it’s Detroit, but certainly a lesson on believability watching that group.”

Believability only goes so far. In order to translate it into wins, every player has to turn their belief in the group into results on the field. In the case of the Red Wings, believing they had a playoff chance late last season proved inspiring for the group as it embarked on its near-miss playoff run. Every point was seen as proof that they could make it into the postseason, and every loss was seen as a wasted opportunity that only intensified their resolve. In the end, they didn’t make it into the postseason, but they learned a lot about themselves in the process.

For the Tigers, the same process netted them the extra win or two they needed to clinch their wildcard berth. Every time they were doubted, they used it as further motivation to prove the world wrong. It took intense effort; it took players giving everything they had to make it. But in the end, the Tigers proved the naysayers wrong.

“I think you kind of use that as motivation,” defenseman Jeff Petry said Thursday. His father, Dan, is a former Tiger and one of Bally Sports Detroit’s Tigers commentators. “And not speaking on the Tigers, but what they were doing the last month of the year is that — they had to give everything they had, and they hit the playoffs feeling good about themselves and at the top of their game.”

For now, the Red Wings can watch their baseball peers live playoff dreams, all the while embarking on their own 82-game slog to make good on their own postseason aspirations. The Tigers can also serve as a source of inspiration, an underdog story that they can try to replicate in some fashion. Because if the Red Wings want to be a playoff team themselves, it’s going to be a difficult road ahead. But as the Tigers illustrate, belief and sacrifice go a long way to getting there.