Red Wings coach Todd McLellan told the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan that the Red Wings are embracing the challenges which lie ahead of them on their upcoming 4-game road trip:
“We had a good practice, didn’t expect anything different,” McLellan said. “I would have been disappointed if it went the other way. They came and worked. They’ve done that every day since we’ve been here. Now we got to translate that into a good effort in Florida.”
McLellan didn’t point to any one area to focus on during practice.
“Getting our mindset to where it was,” McLellan said. “Habits are hard to break and tend to creep in now and then. We were trying to break some habits and trying to change a few things. We were focused on that and improving our overall game.”
The Panthers will be a stern test to lead off the trip.
“They’re the Stanley Cup champs, so there you go,” McLellan said. “We just played in Winnipeg, a tough place to play and No. 1 in the league right now, and we responded well (4-2 victory).
“We’ll learn if we can recover and manage a game a little bit better. We didn’t do a good job (Tuesday), with the timing of the goals (allowed), the beginning of the periods and momentum swings of grabbing it and giving it right back. Did we learn anything from that? We know the task in front of us is a tough one, this whole trip.”
Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider’s even more enthusiastic about what might happen:
“We can beat any team in the league,” Seider said. “Why not start in Florida with a good start for the road trip? Set ourselves up, feel good about ourselves and then go to work in the other cities as well.”
