DETROIT — When it's all said and done this season, the Red Wings likely accomplished one of their biggest goals.
The Wings wanted to play meaningful games until deep into the season and they have. You can debate how close the Wings really were these last several weeks, but mathematically they were still technically in the race.
On Thursday, all the mathematics ended when the Wings lost, 7-6, in a shootout to Buffalo at Little Caesars Arena.
David Perron tied the game at 6 with his 23rd goal, blasting a one-timer off a Moritz Seider feed at 19 minutes of the third period.
After an exciting, but scoreless, overtime, the Sabres won the shootout, 2-1.
It was the seventh consecutive season the Wings have missed the playoffs. The last time the Wings made the playoffs was 2015-16, when they lost in five games in the first round to Tampa.
With Florida and the New York Islanders also both winning handily at press time, every possible scenario that could have done the Wings in basically happened, and will make the Wings' final four games meaningless in terms of the playoffs.
But the Wings have insisted all along none of these games down the stretch are without importance.
"These games are meaningful for us with the young team that we’ve got," defenseman Jake Walman said last week. "It's a lot of experience playing against teams that are battling for playoff spots. This is our playoffs, so every game is important. It will help us next year and in the long run.
"With all the young guys on our team, we're a growing team, we're building and hopefully we can build (into a playoff team)."
Buffalo broke a 4-all tie with Chad Greenway and Dylan Cozens scoring goals 1 minute, 12 seconds apart early in the third period.
Jonatan Berggren's 15th goal cut the lead to 6-5 at 8:02, tapping in Matt Luff's pass.
Austin Czarnik, Dylan Larkin (power play), Alex Chiasson (power play) and Simon Edvinsson had the other Wings goals.
Cozens had two goals (one power play), and Tage Thompson, Henri Jokiharju, Zemgus Girgensons and Greenway answered with Buffalo goals.
Thompson opened the scoring, with his 45th goal for the Sabres.
Thompson found open space in the slot and snapped a shot past Ville Husso, also Thompson's 91st point, giving the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 4:35.
But the Wings came right back with Czarnik scoring his third goal.
Czarnik's shot from the dot rolled up the stick of Buffalo's Alex Tuch and froze goalie Devon Levi, tying the game 1-all at 10:38.
Larkin extended the lead at 14:03, making it 2-1.
Lucas Raymond found Larkin in the slot, and Larkin redirected the puck through Levi's legs for Larkin's 31st goal.
Coach Derek Lalonde talked earlier in the week about Larkin's season, and the next step in his career Larkin has taken.
"Awesome," said Lalonde of Larkin's season. "It's just a hard league, and he's put together a real nice season. To put up 30 (goals) in this league is impressive. Just a real good season."
Buffalo continued the offensive barrage in the first period with two late goals.
Jokiharju tied it at 2 with his 10th goal at 17:10, as Tuch found Jokiharju open near the dot that beat Husso.
After the goal, the Wings and Buffalo got into a brief melee with the Wings not pleased over Buffalo's Jeff Skinner celebrating excessively, especially after Skinner had knocked down Raymond with an upper-body shot.
Walman was assessed a four-minute roughing call, and on the ensuing power play, Cozens scored his first goal and 30th of the season, with a shot from the dot.
Girgensons gave Buffalo a 4-2 lead with a great deflection early in the second period, but the Wings tied it at 4, with Chiasson (his sixth goal) and Edvinsson (second goal) scoring 48 seconds apart late in the period.
