With that said, it's not a great look for the NHL, and when they realized the possibility that it would play out like that they probably should have staggered the game starts. If you start the Wings/MTL at 7 and Wash/Phi at 730 everyone would likely know where the Wings stood prior to when they would have pulled the goalie.
This is one of the dumbest ideas in a thread full of dumbness. Why on earth would the league go out of its way and reschedule games, just to make things convenient for the Detroit Red Wings? Why not make things convenient for the Philadelphia Flyers, or Washington Capitals instead? How is any of that remotely reasonable, to pick a team to make a convenience for? Specifically to make a single game strategy decision by Torts no longer meaningful. This thought process only exists in HF fans brains, not in any real world run by professionals.
How's this: Make the Wings game start when the Caps/Flyers game is completely over, since the only team that controlled their destiny was the Caps? Caps win, then the Wings can mail it in. Caps lose in OT or regulation, then the Wings have a chance and a reason to play hard. Yeah, this is still stupid.
Here's a better idea... everyone just plays to win the game, and the chips all fall where they fall. Torts needed to win in regulation to have any chance. He also needed to win in regulation to eliminate the Caps. So regardless of what happened in Detroit, Torts wants to eliminate the Caps with a regulation win, which may easily explain why he pulled the goalie without checking with Wings fans first to see if it was OK.