Todd McLellan didn’t beat around the bush in his postgame statement after the Detroit Red Wings were eliminated from playoff contention in the 2025–26 NHL season. Fans booed the team off the ice after the 5-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils in the final home game of the campaign, and the Red Wings’ head coach admitted such behavior was reasonable.
Dylan Larkin blamed himself after the Red Wings missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs once again, but the rest of the team is still grieving such a heartbreaking end to the season. Still, who’s to blame matters little to fans in Detroit. They want to see a winning team for once, and McLellan’s side has come up short on that promise. Now, the Red Wings must face the music and stand up for their actions. Even McLellan believes so.
“This is Detroit. This is Hockeytown. I’ve been lucky enough to be on the other side of it when they couldn’t stop cheering for this team, and they’re dying for that. They crave that. That’s what they want,” McLellan stated, via NHL.com.
“And I don’t even know if they want a Stanley Cup championship anymore. They just want a team that’s going to come and give them something to cheer about. [The boos are] what we earned.”
Todd McLellan sent the Red Wings a wake-up call
The bar is lower for the Red Wings
McLellan was an assistant coach back in the 2007–08 season when the Red Wings last hoisted a Stanley Cup. At the time, Detroit had made the Stanley Cup Playoffs every year since 1991 and would go on to make them every season until 2016. With 11 Stanley Cups in their trophy case and 25 straight postseason appearances, the Red Wings never saw this coming. They haven’t made the playoffs since and now hold the NHL‘s longest active playoff drought.
Back in the glory days, it was championship or bust for Detroit. Now, the expectation has gone down exponentially. Fans just want to see them make the postseason. Detroit can take it from there, but it must first snap its 10-year drought—the longest in franchise history. Even though the bar is set much lower for these Red Wings compared to other teams throughout the years, they can’t clear it.
The Red Wings must undergo changes
Simply put, Detroit comes up short time and again, and that only leads to more frustration. Without a shadow of a doubt, this is the nadir of Red Wings history. Patience is running low in Hockeytown; the boos in the last homestand of the season prove just that, and changes must be made in Motor City. Detroit isn’t exactly known for its fashion sense. In the 313, everything old might not be new again after all.
