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HSJ in the morning: on the road ahead

The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses the Red Wings’ challenging 4-game road trip, which begins with a game against the Florida Panthers this evening (ESPN/97.1 FM):

A bump on the road or a sign of how rough the map still is? That’s the question the Detroit Red Wings next are tasked with answering.

They begin a four-game swing, their longest since Todd McLellan was named coach Dec. 26, by taking on the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Thursday, then it’s on to play the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. From there the Wings travel northwest to Dallas to play the Stars on Sunday with a final stop looming Jan. 21 against the Philadelphia Flyers. Of those opponents, the Flyers are the only team the Wings have already played this season.

“This is a huge test,” Andrew Copp said Wednesday. “Four good teams, teams that we haven’t really faced yet this year, teams that are above us in the standings. It’s going to be a really good measuring-stick road trip for us.”

…

There’s tons of runway left for the Wings (20-19-4), but their schedule the rest of the way is pretty daunting: Twenty-three of their remaining 39 games are on the road and the road games include a trek to Western Canada and Seattle. Most immediately, this coming trip figures to be a challenge, as the Wings have lost 10 of their last 12 games in Florida, lost 11 straight at Dallas and lost 20 of the last 22 in Philadelphia. (They have won four of the last six in Tampa after dropping 17 straight there).

“It’s always a new challenge for us, but I think we can beat any team in the league,” defenseman Moritz Seider said. “Why not start in Florida with a good start for the road trip, set ourselves up and feel good about ourselves and then go to work in the other cities as well. 

“I think (the loss to San Jose) is just a bump in the road and we’ll fix that and get ready for a good road trip.”

Continued (paywall)

Tweets of note: Fanatics hypes NHL Stadium Series jerseys

Per Fanatics on Twitter:

Press release: NHL unveils Stadium Series uniforms

Per the NHL:

NHL and Fanatics Debut Uniforms for 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series

Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings face off at legendary Ohio Stadium on March 1

COLUMBUS / DETROIT (Jan. 16, 2025) – Today, the National Hockey League (NHL) and Fanatics, the League’s authentic outfitter, unveiled the uniforms for the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series™ between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings. The marquee event, marking the League’s 43rd regular-season outdoor game, will be played at the iconic Ohio Stadium, Home of the Buckeyes, on March 1, 2025. The uniforms, designed by Fanatics with input and alignment from both teams and the League, highlight the distinct cultural and historical identities of both Columbus and Detroit.

Starting today, 2025 NHL Stadium Series jerseys will be available for pre-order exclusively at all Blue Jackets and Red Wings team store locations. In addition, Blue Jackets fans can pre-order their jersey via the team’s official online store.

The Blue Jackets’ uniform pays tribute to the rich history of Ohio and Columbus. The design draws inspiration from the uniforms worn by the Union Army, with the jersey featuring several military-like details, including:

  • A chevron sleeve stripe denoting the rank insignia of the era.
  • Shoulder featuring a new “CBJ” mark surrounding two crossed hockey sticks, a nod to the unit designation pins worn on the front of soldier’s slouch caps.
  • A front crest featuring “The Cannon,” derived from the Blue Jackets alternate logo and key element of any Columbus Blue Jackets home game, colored with new metallic silver and red accents.
Continue reading Press release: NHL unveils Stadium Series uniforms

Coach McLellan wants his Red Wings team to embrace the challenges ahead

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.”

Justin Holl’s rolling with the punches

Red Wings defenseman Justin Holl was benched for the last half of the 3rd period in yesterday’s 6-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks, and he told the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan that things…happen:

Holl was one of the players McLellan singled out postgame Tuesday who needs to play better. Holl agreed.

“You want to play the next game and get that bad taste out of your mouth,” Holl said. “If you’re going to be a defenseman in the NHL, you’re going to look dumb sometimes. That’s just how it goes. You don’t want to be that guy, but all you can do is stay confident and get right back at it.”

Continued

It’s ‘one shift at a time’ as the Wings face a difficult schedule

The Red Wings’ beat writers have repeatedly informed us of the difficulties which the Wings face in their upcoming 4-games-in-6-nights road trip, as well as their remaining schedule. Detroit’s players and coach are looking forward to a rough schedule and playing teams that they never seem to defeat, as they told Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff:

“This is a huge test,” admitted Red Wings forward Andrew Copp. “Four good teams, teams that we haven’t really faced yet this year, teams that are above us in the standing. So this is going to be a real good measuring road trip for us.”

In truth, it’s just the first of many difficult challenges ahead for this team. According to the website Tankathon.com, Detroit is grading out with the most difficult remaining schedule in the NHL. The opponents ahead for the Red Wings show an average winning percentage of .588.

“We play really good teams now,” Detroit defenseman Moritz Seider said. “I think we just should be excited.”

Detroit has four games remaining with Tampa Bay, and three each against Florida and Carolina. Home-and-homes await with the Stars, Minnesota and Vegas. There’s also two remaining games on the slate with surprising Washington and surging Montreal. Single games include Toronto, New Jersey, Colorado and Edmonton.

The Red Wings will be finishing the regular season with four of five on the road. They close with games against the Devils and Maple Leafs.

Coach McLellan will have none of it:

“I want them to live in the moment and just worry about that,” the Detroit coach said. “It can be hard if you get caught up in all of that stuff. It can take you down or it can put you too far up. Put the equipment on and let’s deal with things between Minute 1 and Minute 60 and we’re fine.”

Stadium Series hieroglyphics

Sportslogos.net’s Chris Creamer reports that we may have seen the team logos for the 2025 Stadium Series game in Columbus this March 1st via a souvenir puck:

A piece of merchandise may have given us a preview of what we can expect at the upcoming 2025 Stadium Series game at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

Thanks to a photo of a souvenir hockey puck posted to an online shop, we have learned the Detroit Red Wings will incorporate a scripted “Detroit” wordmark into their look, while the Columbus Blue Jackets will be going with a cannon-themed design.

The Red Wings scripted wordmark logo shows “Detroit” in white with a tail below it, a style that both Michigan and Michigan State have worn on the front of their hockey jerseys. Columbus, meanwhile, is going with a logo featuring a cannon on its own, pulling an element directly from their long-used third jersey, recoloured to incorporate red into its design.

Continue reading Stadium Series hieroglyphics

Cotsonika on the hard road ahead

NHL.com’s Nicholas J. Cotsonika spoke with Red Wings forwards Patrick Kane and Dylan Larkin, as well as coach Todd McLellan, about the Wings’ tough road trip this upcoming week/weekend, as well as the Wings’ difficult remaining schedule. Kane suggested that the Wings are only eying the Florida Panthers, Thursday night’s ESPN game opponent…

“You take it as a challenge,” forward Patrick Kane said. “Under Todd, we’ve kind of built a little bit of a foundation where we’re kind of knowing what to expect going forward and feeling confident about it as well, so just play every game, take it a game at a time and see what happens.”

The Red Wings hired McLellan to replace Derek Lalonde on Dec. 26. With only one morning skate to prepare, they lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 at home the next night. Then they went on their longest winning streak since Jan. 12-23, 2012.

The streak started with a 4-2 win against the Washington Capitals at home Dec. 29 and included a 4-2 win at the Winnipeg Jets on Jan. 4. The Jets and Capitals are tied atop the NHL standings. Those performances can serve as inspiration against the Panthers.

“They’re physical,” Kane said. “They can play pretty much any game, right? They have a lot of skill. They can keep coming at you in waves. We obviously saw that last year with them doing what they did to win, so we need to be on top of our game. We proved we can do that when we went into Winnipeg and beat the best team in the League, right? Let’s do it again.”

The captain is looking forward to playing in Florida, too, where the Wings haven’t found much success…

“In this league, anyone can beat anyone on any given night,” he said. “We’ve been feeling good about our game, and we came in [last night], and we got stumped. It just goes that way. We’re going in to play the defending champs, division rivals, in Florida, which is a tough place to play. And how they play there, it’s a tough, tough challenge. But I think we’re up for it.”

And coach McLellan doesn’t want the Wings to worry about anything but tomorrow night’s game:

“What I don’t want them to do is get caught up in a seven-game win streak or a four-game losing streak,” he said. “I want them to live in the moment and just worry about that. It can be hard if you get caught up in all of that stuff, and it can take you down or it can put you too far up. Put the equipment on, and let’s deal with things between Minute 1 and Minute 60, and we’re fine.”

Don’t know much about history…

MLive’s Ansar Khan Tweeted out the following during practice today…

And Khan posted an article which discusses the Wings’ difficult road trip and remaining schedule to come, which coach Todd McLellan cares about:

“I don’t know that history, so I’d like to not know it,” McLellan said. “We’re going to keep finding more about the group. I thought for the first time we sagged just a little bit in (Tuesday’s) game. It was almost like we were entitled to win. And when it wasn’t going for us, just a little bit of a sag. Human nature, but something we got to fight through.”

The Red Wings (20-19-4) play 23 of their final 39 games on the road and according to Tankathon.com, have the league’s most difficult remaining schedule based on opponents’ points percentage (.588).

That’s big picture. They’re focused on reversing their performance over the past four periods.

“Our last four or five periods haven’t really been that good, but I think there’s a confidence in here that I even felt on the bench last night, even going into the third,” Andrew Copp said. “The times where we got within one really felt like the confidence level of the group was we’re going to win this game. I think that’s an important feeling to have within the group. Four good teams. This is going to be a really good measuring road trip for us.”

McLellan liked what he saw from Wednesday’s practice.

“I thought we had a good practice, didn’t expect anything different,” McLellan said. “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.”

Moritz Seider doesn’t want to hear it, either:

“I think we can beat any team in the league, and why not start in Florida with a good start for the road trip?” Seider said. “Set ourselves up, feel good about ourselves, and then go to work in the other cities as well.”

Continued

Tweet of note: Trey Augustine named to Mike Richter Award Watch List

Per Michigan State University: