At 10-game mark of their 2025-26 season, good practice habits translating into positive results for Red Wings

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – The Detroit Red Wings practiced at Toyota Sports Performance Center on Wednesday afternoon, priming for the California leg of their current five-game road trip that will see them play three games over the next four days starting with Thursday night’s clash against the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena.

“We really don’t have any choice but to embrace it,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said about the daily grind of an NHL season. “We’re not the only team in the League. There are 31 others that must get out on the road and play half their season there. Travel becomes a factor. Back-to-back games become a factor. It’s not just about the Detroit Red Wings – everybody goes through this. The teams that are mentally strong and well-equipped handle it the way they should. The teams that are still working on it kind of fumble through it, and then there are the others. We certainly don’t want to be either of those last two. We’d like to be the team that handles it well.”

Since the start of this year’s Training Camp in Traverse City, Mich., a key message from McLellan and his players has been about forging an identity and maintaining that throughout the 2025-26 campaign. Early on, that identity formation has arguably been most evident during practices, where Detroit’s coaching staff stresses good habits with the hope they’ll carry over into games.

Captain Dylan Larkin said the Red Wings’ 5-2 win over the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Tuesday night displayed how a productive practice -- which they had two of at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center on Sunday and Monday afternoon before hitting the road – can fuel the group’s play.

“We really put what we practiced into the game,” Larkin said. “It showed. We didn’t give up much, and I’m sure Todd would tell you there’s probably tons of good and positive clips. Over the last week or so, with our tracking especially, that wasn’t so positive. He gave us a little bit of a pat on the back today that we took what we practiced and taught to do into the game.”

For McLellan, getting that type of performance because of the hard work they’re putting in is “rewarding, not necessarily for us as coaches but for the players.”

“They knew they needed to work and improve in certain areas, and it showed up in the game,” McLellan said. “Now, that’s one night. We’ve been saying this basically all year, ‘Can we bottle it? Can we travel with it? Can we maintain it?’ We’re still working hard on starts, trying to get out of the gate better than we have over the last few games.”

Now 10 games into its Centennial season, Detroit entered Wednesday’s NHL slate ranked second in the Atlantic Division with a 7-3-0 (14 points) overall record.

“Every point matters,” Larkin said. “I think the next challenge for us is, with how we play and skate, we’re going to be in games. Where we’re at in the standings right now, it’s still very early, but teams are going to be coming for us. They’re going to bring their best against us, and that’s something we’re not used to. When you’re at the top of the standings, teams want to beat you. You have to be ready every night.”

Another post-practice discussion on Tuesday was the status of Patrick Kane, who has missed the past five games with an upper-body injury.

“We are at 12 forwards right now,” McLellan said. “I know Kaner is skating at home, but I haven’t got an update today and in fact, I didn’t get one yesterday. He won’t play tomorrow and won’t play in Anaheim the following day. We’ll see how it goes from there.”