OctoPulse podcast: Wings-Caps wild-card preview, Leo Carlsson interview

Ted Kulfan previews the Red Wings' final game of a successful five-game road trip in Washington and Sweden's top NHL prospect Leo Carlsson is the interview guest.

Detroit heads into Tuesday's wild-card showdown at Capital One Arena three points behind the Penguins and Islanders for the final playoff position and one point behind the Capitals, who have lost four in a row and will be without Alexander Ovechkin for the fourth straight game.

More:Jakub Vrana could return to lineup as Wings head into crucial game in standings

"I wouldn't call it the game of the century but it's a pretty important game for them," Kulfan said on the podcast. "They're very much in the playoff picture and they're in fantastic shape. Both Detroit and Buffalo are sitting pretty right now. Everybody else around them are faltering and they both have games in hand.

"There's a little bit of pressure there for the Wings and it'll be interesting to see how these guys handle it because let's face it there's a lot of players on this team who have not played an important game like this late in the season. How will they take on this kind of responsibility?"

Here are other highlights from episode 85 of the Detroit News/Detroit Red Wings podcast:

:45 Wings-Caps preview

2:30 Jakub Vrana on playing in Grand Rapids

4:40 Dylan Larkin named NHL's Third Star of the Week

6:15 Leo Carlsson interview

13:30 Olli Maata on signing two-year, $6M contract

15:30 Derek Lalonde on Filip Zadina

16:40 Most important game in four-year rebuild