PREVIEW: Red Wings in Seattle for Saturday showdown against the Kraken  

SEATTLE -- Going for a regular-season series sweep over the NHL’s second-newest expansion team, the Detroit Red Wings will face off against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday night.

“The start is going to be real important,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “[The Kraken] are probably not overly happy with some of their results over the last little bit, therefore we better be ready to play.”

FanDuel Sports Network Detroit Extra and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit) will carry the TV and radio broadcast coverage, respectively, of Saturday’s 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT puck drop between Detroit (14-11-3; 31 points) and Seattle (11-8-6; 28 points).

The Red Wings’ season-long six-game road swing began with a seesaw 6-5 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Thursday that saw them score three power-play goals and battle back from a third-period deficit to pocket a point.

“I thought we did good things in that game,” McLellan said. “Our power play was real good. I thought once we established playing our game, we got our forecheck going and created a lot of chances off the attack that way. We stayed in the game, which was real important… We had to come from behind, so we’re staying in games and finding ways to come back. Those are positive things that we got to keep going.”

Ranked sixth in the Western Conference’s Pacific Division, the Kraken are winless in their last four games and most recently lost to the Edmonton Oilers by a 9-4 score at Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday.

This season, Seattle is led offensively by Jaden Schwartz (eight goals, seven assists), captain Jordan Eberle (eight goals, seven assists) and Matty Beniers (three goals, 12 assists), all of whom have 15 points apiece. In net, Joey Daccord is 7-6-4 with a 2.92 goals-against average and .894 save percentage while Philipp Grubauer is 4-4-0 with a 2.63 GAA to go along with a .895 SV%.

“They’re a real strong checking team,” McLellan said about the Kraken. “I’ve talked about each team having a number – they understand what their number is and what they need to do to keep it at that. They’re committed to it. They’ve been getting some good goaltending, so I don’t expect the game to play out any different than what it did in Detroit-- a tight-checking, tight game beginning to end.”

Nate Danielson, who scored his first career NHL goal in Detroit’s 4-2 win over Seattle at Little Caesars Arena on Nov. 18, also pointed out how crucial it will be for his club to get off to a strong start in the Emerald City.

“Try to get to our game as quickly as we can,” the 21-year-old rookie forward said. “Just establish the way we play and try to do that as quickly as we can.”