Detroit — The boos were loud and stinging and showed how frustrated Red Wings fans are.

They rained down after the Wings’ 5-3 loss to New Jersey, officially eliminating the Wings from the Stanley Cup playoffs, and during the final minutes as the Wings struggled to generate a goal and at least earn a point for the standings.

They didn’t score. They lost. And fans let them hear about it.

The Wings now own the longest streak of not making the playoffs in the NHL, at 10 consecutive seasons. Without a doubt, fans aren’t happy about it.

Coach and players understood the booing, accepted it as the fans simply not being happy with the same outcome now, season after season.

“This is Detroit, this is Hockeytown,” said coach Todd McLellan, who was an assistant coach on the Wings’ last Stanley Cup winning team in 2008. “I’ve been lucky enough to be on the other side of it, when they couldn’t stop cheering for this team. They’re dying for that. They crave that.

“That’s what they want, and I don’t even know if they want a Stanley Cup championship anymore. They just want a team that will come and give them something to cheer about.”

Players in the last few weeks referenced the “outside noise” from fans, alluding to the pressure or negativism from fans, and they have been attempting to keep it outside of the locker room.

The fans, said McLellan, have the right to express their opinions after 25 consecutive years of making the playoffs with four Stanley Cups during that timeframe.

“This outside noise stuff or whatever, that’s inside noise, those are our fans in our building and they pay to watch us play, and we get paid well to perform for them,” McLellan said. “They’re fulling entitled to their opinion and we deserve that opinion.

Advertisement

“There’s no other way to sugarcoat it. That’s what we earned.”

Captain Dylan Larkin said it was “difficult” to hear the booing.

“Our fans are great, they are passionate and they care about winning,” Larkin said. “There’s been some great years here and they want us back to that. That’s what they expect here.”

Lucas Raymond said it “stinks” to end the season the way the Wings did, and have fans boo at Little Caesars Arena.

Advertisement

“We had a clear goal coming into this year and we didn’t do it,” Raymond said. “We had plenty of opportunities throughout this season and especially down the stretch.”

McLellan feels the Wings need to do a better job of facing and conquering the pressure and challenge of meaningful games late in the season.

“I felt a little bit of that last year, I’ve lived a year of it now and it’s there,” said McLellan of the external pressure. “But we keep earning that. We earned that pressure and that outside (“noise”) but you can except the pressure as challenge or you can succumb to it and we seem to choose the second one (succumb to it).

“That’s the way it is and the only way you get out of it is, you work your way out of it.”

tkulfan@detroitnews.com

Advertisement

@tkulfan

Detroit Red Wings sign autographs after season’s final home game

Marco Kasper, Simon Edvinsson, Emmitt Finnie and the rest of the Red Wings signed hockey sticks for fans after the game

The NBA Eastern Conference’s No. 1-seeded team enters the postseason with eyes on a title run.

After clinching the top seed, the Detroit Pistons are headed to the postseason for a second-consecutive season after lack of success in prior years.

SHOP: Detroit Pistons 2026 NBA playoff tickets

The strong play of Cade Cunningham has been the catalyst for the Pistons as they’ve been one of the top defensive teams in the league. Now, it’s time to start thinking about the postseason as Pistons playoff tickets are already available.

Find out more information and how to buy 2026 Detroit Pistons NBA playoff tickets below:

Shop Detroit Pistons NBA Playoff tickets

Detroit Pistons NBA playoff tickets

Detroit Pistons NBA playoff schedule

While we don’t yet know the Pistons’ first-round opponent or exact schedule, we know Detroit fans are guaranteed to host at least Game 1 and Game 2, with the potential to host Game 5 and Game 7 should the series require it.

Detroit Pistons NBA playoff ticket prices

As of publication, the cheapest available ticket to a Detroit Pistons home playoff game during the first round is $93.

Shop Detroit Pistons NBA playoff tickets