DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings (41-25-13) can clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a win against the Carolina Hurricanes (29-39-11) at Joe Louis Arena on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-CR, FS-D) and some help.
Detroit would need the Ottawa Senators to lose in regulation against the Pittsburgh Penguins to secure a playoff spot for the 24th consecutive season.
"Obviously, everybody knows the situation, everybody knows how many points everybody else has," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "I really believe we've played a lot of good hockey here of late. We haven't scored, and we let it in too easy.
"We just got to keep building on our game, and I think that's what we're doing. We're excited for this opportunity. If I would have told the guys at the start of the year that we had an opportunity to be in the playoffs they would have been jacked. So we're still in that same opportunity."
The Red Wings are 5-10-2 in their past 17 games.
Forward Pavel Datsyuk didn't participate in the morning skate but is expected to play. He has a sore ankle and has only played in four of the past 11 games because of another lower-body injury.
Carolina, which was eliminated from playoff contention, lost 4-3 against the Buffalo Sabres in Buffalo on Monday. The Hurricanes, who have lost four of their past five, fell behind 4-0 early in the second period.
"I think we've got to learn from tonight. Tonight wasn't good enough," Hurricanes coach Bill Peters, a former Red Wings assistant, said after that game. "Not a good enough effort on the road to win in the National Hockey League, and you can't give up four goals this time of year and expect to win."
Carolina didn't skate Tuesday morning and Peters is scheduled to be available to the media before the game.
Here are the projected lineups:
HURRICANES
Eric Staal - Jordan Staal - Elias Lindholm
Jeff Skinner - Andrej Nestrasil - Alexander Semin
Chris Terry - Victor Rask - Nathan Gerbe
Brad Malone - Jay McClement - Patrick Dwyer
Brett Bellemore - John-Michael Liles
Scratched: Danny Biega
Injured: Riley Nash (concussion), Rasmus Rissanen (knee), Jack Hillen (concussion)
RED WINGS
Darren Helm - Pavel Datsyuk - Henrik Zetterberg
Gustav Nyquist - Riley Sheahan - Tomas Tatar
Stephen Weiss - Joakim Andersson - Teemu Pulkkinen
Drew Miller - Luke Glendening - Landon Ferraro
Niklas Kronwall - Jonathan Ericsson
Brendan Smith - Marek Zidlicky
Scratched: Daniel Cleary, Jakub Kindl
Injured: Justin Abdelkader (hand), Erik Cole (upper body), Tomas Jurco (upper body), Johan Franzen (concussion)
Status report: As usual, when the Red Wings are in a tight spot or need a win, Babcock has reunited Datsyuk and Zetterberg. He has also reunited Sheahan between Tatar and Nyquist, which was a productive line earlier in the season. Ferraro was recalled from Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League on Monday.
Who's hot: Eric Staal has a goal and two assists in his past two games.