Red-Wings-4-4-14

Young players like Luke Glendening (left), Tomas Tatar (21) and Tomas Jurco (26) have teamed with veterans like Niklas Kronwall (55) to help spark the Red Wings.

(The Associated Press)

DETROIT – Here they are again. It’s the last week of the regular season and the Detroit Red Wings, with four games remaining, are battling to make the playoffs.

This time they have some margin for error. They don’t need to win all four games to make it, like they did a year ago.

But that's now how the Red Wings are approaching their task of reaching the playoffs for the 23rd consecutive season. They feel urgency to win every game, starting Tuesday in Buffalo (7 p.m., Fox Sports Detroit). They would prefer not to be in a must-win situation Sunday in their season finale at St. Louis.

“We’re close but we’re not there yet,” forward Justin Abdelkader said. “There are important games coming up.

“We don’t want to be waiting until the last game, hoping teams are losing; that’s not a fun position to be in. We can take care of our own business; that would be the best way to do it.”

The Red Wings got some help Monday night when the Calgary Flames defeated New Jersey 1-0. It reduced Detroit’s magic number for clinching a playoff spot to three points (any combination of three points earned by the Red Wings or lost by the Devils).

“I think we’re in a good spot right now,” forward Drew Miller said. “We have to win some games. Our mindset is to continue playing well and make the playoffs. That’s our goal and we want to continue playing well when we get in the playoffs.”

The Red Wings, with 88 points, are sitting in the top wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who also have four games remaining and own the first tie-breaker over Detroit (most regulation/overtime wins).

The Toronto Maple Leafs (84 points, three games left) and Washington Capitals (83 points, four games remaining) are teetering on the brink of elimination.

“We have to win our games and we can’t expect other teams to lose,” Detroit’s Daniel Alfredsson said. “We got to expect that everybody is going to win their games to close the season. It’s obviously better to be in a position where you control your own destiny and that’s what we want to do.”

The Red Wings are 4-1-0 in their past five and 8-4-1 in their past 13.

“I think the way we’ve been playing for the last -- it seems like this whole year -- it’s been big games every night with a lot of pressure every night,” Alfredsson said. “I think as a group we’ve embraced it and done the most of it.

“Coming into the playoffs we just have to continue what we’re doing. I think we’ve built a real good foundation where we trust in each other as a group. We just have to make sure that we keep it going this week and we’ll be looking pretty good.”

The Red Wings are 3-0 against the Sabres (51 points), who have the worst record in the NHL, but all three games have been close and low-scoring (2-1, 3-1, 3-2).

The Penguins are locked into the No. 2 spot in the East, so Wednesday’s game has no significance for them in the standings.

The Red Wings on Friday host a Carolina club that is all but out of the playoff picture. And Sunday’s game might not have any relevance for the Western Conference-leading Blues.

The Red Wings have overcome a multitude of injuries, including several to their best players, to give themselves an opportunity to reach the postseason. The growth of young players like Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar, Riley Sheahan, Tomas Jurco, Luke Glendening and Danny DeKeyser has been a key.

“We’ve done a lot of good things this season, we’ve had a lot of fun doing it,” coach Mike Babcock said. “The kids have really grown. We feel we’ve gotten better as a team. The reality is what’s going to be measured is what happens over these last four games.”