Detroit City Wire

Following the Detroit Tigers' Home Opener at Comerica Park against the Chicago White Sox, the Detroit Red Wings will host the Carolina Hurricanes for Tigers Night at Little Caesars Arena on Friday.

Scheduled for a 7 p.m. puck drop, the game marks the beginning of a two-game homestand for Detroit, which is attempting to avoid a season sweep by Carolina. The Red Wings, with a record of 34-33-7, fell to the Hurricanes, 2-1, at a home game on March 4 and then again, 4-2, at Lenovo Center on March 14. The Hurricanes currently stand at 46-24-4.

Albert Johansson commented on the intensity of games at this point in the season, saying, "When you’re getting down to this stretch right before the playoffs, this stretch gets more intense. There are a lot of teams fighting for the playoffs, so you can feel the intensity and physicality going up, but this is the most fun part of the year."

Detroit is still in the race for the Eastern Conference's second Wild-Card spot, following a narrow overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues, 2-1, on Tuesday. Despite the loss, Lucas Raymond remained positive, stating, "A tough building against a team that’s on a winning streak right now, but I think we played well for the majority of that game [in St. Louis]. Obviously we would have wanted the two points, but we’ll take one and move on."

With a small gap of six points separating the Red Wings from the Montreal Canadiens, Detroit is motivated to capitalize on this homestand. Johansson remarked, "There are eight games left in the season, and we only have three at home. We need to take care of home ice, and that starts this weekend by taking care of these two games."

Head coach Todd McLellan noted that he anticipates Elmer Soderblom's return to the lineup against the Hurricanes. Soderblom, out since March 24, has contributed 10 points in 23 games this season.

For Carolina, the team has secured a Stanley Cup Playoffs spot after defeating the Washington Capitals. Sebastian Aho, leading in assists and points, along with Seth Jarvis and Andrei Svechnikov, spearhead the team's offense. Additionally, Pyotr Kochetkov leads the goalkeeping efforts with a notable 26-13-3 record from 43 appearances. McLellan spoke on Carolina's challenge, saying, "We’ve played them enough recently to use our own information, video and clips about any structure things or tendencies they may have. Especially if it matches up to their recent play. That makes the pre-scout easy, but not the task of playing against them easier. They are collectively a tough team to play against, the way they attack."