The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed an evening notebook article on Wednesday, discussing the Red Wings’ need to build upon Tuesday’s win vs. the Sharks as the team embarks upon a 3-game California road trip with a game in Anaheim tonight:
Coming off a convincing 6-2 victory Tuesday at home against San Jose — where the Wings will end the California roadie — the Wings are heading into this trip with new-found confidence.
“We want to get as many points as we can down the stretch,” said forward Pius Suter, who sparked Tuesday’s win, both Suter and Tyler Bertuzzi getting two goals in the victory. “Road trips haven’t been as good as we’d like (this season), so we need to get off to a good start the next game and perform like (Tuesday) and that’ll help us moving forward.”
The Wings are 4-10-1 away from Little Caesars Arena and have lost their last three consecutive games. The Wings’ last road victory was Nov. 30 in Boston. Due to COVID postponements, the Wings only played three road games in December — but all were decided losses to St. Louis, Colorado and Carolina, three of the NHL’s best teams.
After losses to Washington and Boston at LCA last weekend — each gut-wrenching in the manner they unfolded — the way the Wings rebounded and took the game to San Jose was a step forward.
“We have to play as good as possible defensively,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “We played pretty good against Washington and didn’t think good enough against Boston. (Tuesday) we did some good things that will help us be good on the road. We played a fairly smothering style from a defensive standpoint, not giving them space. That’s an important thing if you’re going to win on the road.
“Hopefully we’ll continue to grow and learn as a hockey team for us to be successful home and away, but especially on the road.”
Continued (paywall) with 5 points of emphasis….
