The Detroit Red Wings will conclude their three-game road trip on Saturday night with a matchup against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre. The Red Wings enter the game carrying a four-game point streak.
“Rounding it out with two more points, you’d get five of six on this trip,” said Mason Appleton. “That’s a great trip. It’ll be a good game.”
The game, which is also the finale of the two-game regular-season series between Detroit and Winnipeg, is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT/7 p.m. ET. Fans can follow the action on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit).
Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan commented on his team’s resilience so far this season: “We’ve dealt with circumstances all teams do — whether it’s injury, travel, fatigue — we’ve been able to push through to this point. I expect our group to not only handle tonight, but the other 30 games we’ll have after this the same way they have during the season.”
Detroit is coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild at Grand Casino Arena, marking their third consecutive game that extended beyond regulation time. McLellan acknowledged both positives and missed opportunities from that contest.
“That’s a game that’s always hard to play, but every team has that,” McLellan said. “There’s a positive. You get a point, but we also led three different times in that game and found a way to leave a point behind. So, the glass is half empty there. I think we could’ve pushed harder and found a way to take two. So, we can go home at .500 or we can go home with a pretty good road trip. Time to take the test.”
On Friday night, members of the Red Wings organization visited Canada Life Centre to watch their American Hockey League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, defeat the Manitoba Moose 2-1 and extend their road point streak to 17 games—the longest such streak in AHL history.
“The American League team isn’t often in the home city, and the parent club isn’t here at the same time, so I’m not sure if that was a planned scheduling attempt on somebody’s behalf, but we appreciate it,” McLellan said. “We don’t get to see [the Griffins] play enough, or at all really, during the season so we came to the game [on Friday]. I imagine they’ll come to the game tonight, so it’s a healthy thing for us to make sure they understand we’re watching them. Secondly, it gives us a chance to compare our future prospects against their peers.”
The Jets have lost three of their last four games but are currently on a six-game point streak at home following Thursday’s shootout loss against Florida.
“I think Winnipeg is a team that’s kind of finding its groove a little bit here,” Appleton said about his former club. “They know where they are in the standings. They’re a desperate, hungry team. We’re also hungry.”
Mark Scheifele leads Winnipeg with 61 points (25 goals and 36 assists), while Kyle Connor follows with 58 points (23 goals and 35 assists). Gabriel Vilardi ranks third with 44 points (19 goals and 25 assists). Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck has posted 12 wins in 31 games this season.
In their previous meeting earlier this season at Little Caesars Arena—a venue located in downtown Detroit—the Red Wings secured a narrow victory over Winnipeg.
“We came away with a win [on New Year’s Eve], but the second half of that game the Jets were the better team,” McLellan said. “We ended up on our heels a little bit, so I’d like to see us change that. They obviously have a little bit more confidence right now than they did at that time, so our task didn’t get any easier between now and two weeks ago.”
The Detroit Red Wings are one of hockey’s Original Six franchises and began operations in 1926 in Detroit, Michigan (official website). They play home games downtown (official website) and have won 11 Stanley Cup championships (official website), making them recognized as both one of hockey’s most successful U.S.-based teams (official website) and as leaders among American NHL franchises (official website).
