DETROIT — As the games go by, you keep sensing something is brewing with the Red Wings.
The wins keep piling up, the confidence is growing and who knows where this will ultimately end up?
The Wings kept rolling Thursday, never mind returning from a lengthy road trip, or playing an elite New York Rangers team. The Wings won, 4-1, and moved into the second and final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Wings (28-21-8, 64 points) moved past idle Florida, which also has 64 points but has played three more games than the Wings.
The victory was the Wings' seventh in their last eight games, as they've surged after the All-Star break into the thick of the playoff picture.
It was another impressive showing by the Wings Thursday, after returning from a long West Coast to East Coast swing.
"Sometimes you can't read that (mental or physical tiredness)," said coach Derek Lalonde before Thursday's game. "You can manage some things, maybe physically lighten up practice. Even the other night, when (Dylan) Larkin went out (game misconduct), we still managed (playing) minutes. It's hard to get up all the time but this is why you want important games late in the season, to see what the guys are made of and see how they react.
"It's a good opportunity against a Stanley Cup contender."
The Wings proved up to the task.
Andrew Copp, Filip Zadina, Michael Rasmussen and Filip Hronek (power play) had Wings goals, while goaltender Ville Husso stopped 30 shots. David Perron had two assists and Copp each had two assists and Rasmussen one, as the line dominated the scoresheet.
Vincent Trocheck had the lone Rangers (33-16-9) goal.
Zadina gave the Wings the lead for good with his second goal, at 8 minutes, 18 seconds of the second period.
Larkin swiped a puck along the wall, and pushed a pass to Zadina up ice. Zadina snapped a shot past goaltender Jaroslav Halak, Zadina's third consecutive game with a point, and after being a healthy scratch Tuesday in Washington.
Lalonde made a point of saying Tuesday, and again before Thursday's game, it was important to get Zadina back in the lineup.
"I really wanted to get Zadina back in because he played so well previous to the scratch (Tuesday)," Lalonde said.
Lalonde scratched Jonatan Berggren, while keeping Jakub Vrana in the lineup for the second consecutive game.
The Wings are hoping Vrana can recapture the goal-scoring ability he's shown in Detroit when available to play.
"Of course we want him back to where he was, his goals per 60 (minutes) and goals per game," Lalonde said. "We want him managing his game like everyone else is. To the average hockey person, you could see he may leave some things on the defensive side for some offense which players like that, I've dealt with many of those in Tampa. It's the reality of the league.
"But this team is different. We have to be exact. We can't lean or cheat or we don't have a chance. It's proven over our season, we're far enough in a season to see what helps us to be successful, and it's committed to a team keeping it out of our net first, that's the first thing that makes us successful.
"He has to come around to that and just the way he's talked, watching some (video) clips with him and little things like his post-game comments, he's commented on how far along the team game was and he wanted to be part of it."
The Wings showed no signs of weariness after the long road trip.
"This was a tough one," said Lalonde of the five-game, nine-day, coast-to-coast odyssey. "We went West Coast to Mountain Zone, to West Coast to East Coast, so there is some caution to that. I asked the players for a little more focus in the meeting and the first few minutes will be important for us."
