Patrick Kane calls out NHL playoff format as Red Wings miss despite 92 points
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Skyler Walker
Apr 17, 2026 (12:56)
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Photo credit: YouTube Detroit Red Wings
Patrick Kane gave Todd McLellan's Red Wings season its bluntest ending: Detroit missed, and he made it clear the format deserves heat
Kane's message landed because it wasn't soft.
When a player says his club was better than teams that got in, that's not frustration talking around the issue. That's a shot at the structure.
And Detroit has numbers behind the complaint.
The Red Wings finished 82 games at 41-31-10 for 92 points. Los Angeles finished at 90 and still got a path through the West setup. Utah also closed at 92.
That's where the argument starts.
The NHL doesn't reward the best 16 teams. It rewards conference placement first, then division alignment, and clubs like Detroit pay for it.
Kane leans in, speaks calmly, and then drops the line that cuts right through the noise: this team was better than some playoff teams.
That clip turned a familiar Detroit complaint into a clean public challenge.
The Red Wings were not some soft bubble team hanging on at the end.
They finished with the same point total as Utah and 2 more than Los Angeles, which is why Kane's comment is going to stick.
Kane said the quiet part out loud about the NHL playoff format
Detroit also didn't miss by being buried in its division.
The Atlantic had Buffalo at 109, Tampa Bay and Montreal at 106, Boston at 100, Ottawa at 99, and then Detroit at 92.
That is a harder road than the one some Western clubs had.
That doesn't mean the Red Wings were flawless.
They closed on a 2-6-2 run and lost their final game 8-1 in Florida.
That skid gave the league an easy answer, even if it doesn't erase the bigger point.
Because Kane isn't really arguing that Detroit dominated.
He's arguing that the bracket still lets weaker records breathe while stronger teams go home, and he's right to press that.
McLellan now heads into the summer with a locker room that clearly believes it was squeezed by the format as much as its own stumbles.
That belief matters, especially when the margin is this thin.
It also raises the pressure on Steve Yzerman.
When a star player says the team belongs, the next move can't be passive.
Detroit has to treat this like a roster that is ready now, not one still waiting on tomorrow.
Kane didn't just vent.
He framed the case Detroit fans have been making for years: the current setup can leave a better team outside the door.
And this time, the math gives that argument real teeth.
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