Amid tight Wild-Card race and ahead of pivotal three-game road trip, Red Wings focused on taking things ‘a day at a time’

DETROIT – Heading into Monday afternoon’s practice at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center, the Detroit Red Wings were just two points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for the Eastern Conference’s second Wild-Card spot and six back of the Boston Bruins for that first Wild-Card position with nine regular-season games left to play.

In short, still very much in the race for a 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs berth. 

“You know what happens, the results on a night-to-night basis, but at the end of the day, we control our own destiny,” Andrew Copp said. “We have trust and faith in each other that we’re going to do what needs to be done. It was a good, intense practice today. We got to carry over some of those principles we talked about today into tomorrow and the rest of the season, so we can’t get too wrapped up. You got to take it a day at a time. It’s a big game tomorrow in Pittsburgh and we’ll deal with the next game when that happens.”

There won’t be any rest for the hopeful in the weeks ahead, as -- because of tiebreakers -- the Red Wings (39-26-8; 86 points) saw the Ottawa Senators (38-25-10; 86 points) in front of them and the Philadelphia Flyers (37-24-12; 86 points) right on their back in the standings.

Detroit will battle Philadelphia at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Thursday night, after Tuesday night’s matchup versus the Pittsburgh Penguins (37-21-16; 90 points) at PPG Paints Arena and before Saturday’s matinee against the New York Rangers (30-35-9; 69 points) at Madison Square Garden.

“We should be playing better at home than we are,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “That’s disappointing, but the fact that we’ve been a pretty good road team and what do we have in front of us? Three road games. We’ll take that. We haven’t shied away from playing on the road. We haven’t backed off from anything, so we’ll take our game on the road right now, try and improve it. Then when we get back at the end of the week, we’ll see where we are coming into the homestand.”

If Detroit is going to play beyond game No. 82 this season, McLellan stressed the club must prove it can ride out the highs and lows as well as turn the page regardless of how momentum might swing within a contest itself.  

“That’s an area that I don’t think we’ve done a good job of,” McLellan acknowledged. “Our resiliency is still there, you saw it the other night, we came back, but if we don’t start well and something bad happens, we give away too many minutes right now. It takes us too long to recover, take too much water on it. I’ve used that term before…Just getting over it is real important or staying with it.”

Forward prospect Carter Mazur, who appeared in his second career NHL game on Saturday night after being recalled from the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins earlier that afternoon, expressed his eagerness to “bring energy and a spark” to the Red Wings' postseason push.

“I’ve been watching every single game, and I feel like this team is very well structured and can be,” Mazur said. “I feel like it’s a playoff hockey team. Especially growing up a Detroit fan, you kind of see what it is to get into the playoffs, and I see that with this group. I’m excited to be a part of that.”

Hampered by a lower-body injury he sustained in October, Mazur has notched 15 points (11 goals, four assists) in 14 games with the Griffins this season. The Jackson, Mich., native made his NHL debut with his hometown squad on March 6, 2025, but suffered a season-ending injury during his second shift.

“Anything that we saw this year, he wasn’t really involved in because of another injury, which has been unfortunate for him,” McLellan said of Mazur. “Since he’s been back though, he’s been quite an effective player down there. We’ve always tried to tap into those players that are playing well and maybe productive there, bring them up and see if they can give us a spark. We thought, back-to-back [this past weekend], we would need some fresh legs and energy. I think he provided that, but it wasn’t, as I said the other night, not an easy game to come and play when the rest of the group is pretty flat.”