PREVIEW: Red Wings kick off Mom’s Trip with Saturday matinee in D.C.

WASHINGTON – Paying a visit to Capital One Arena to open up a back-to-back home-and-home set as part of their Mom’s Trip, the Detroit Red Wings will face off against the Washington Capitals on Saturday afternoon.

Puck drop for the first of three regular-season meetings between Detroit (19-13-3; 41 points) and Washington (19-11-4; 42 points) is set for 12:30 p.m., with broadcast coverage on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit).

“We spend more time with their sons than they do,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said about the hockey moms in attendance this weekend. “There are times where maybe we behave like parents. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but we do feel responsible or have some responsibility for their development. They get all the support they can from a long distance, but when they’re around we’d like to get to know them.”

On Wednesday, Detroit concluded its first back-to-back set of the week with a 4-1 loss to the Utah Mammoth at Little Caesars Arena. Emmitt Finnie scored the Red Wings’ lone goal on the power play, giving him 16 points (eight goals, eight assists) in 35 games this season.

As a 20-year-old rookie, Finnie has notched the fourth-most goals among all Red Wings skaters behind Alex DeBrincat (20), captain Dylan Larkin (17) and Lucas Raymond (10).

“I think Emmitt, like a lot of the young players, played on emotion a little bit early in the year,” McLellan said. “Then, there’s a breakthrough period where it kind of becomes an everyday thing. Not necessarily work because we’re not working, we’re playing. Once the emotion drains and you just got to show up to work all the time, it can be a little bit harder for young players. That was a breakthrough moment for him. He pushed through that.

"Then, there was a little bit of a lull, I would say 15 games in, where it wasn’t quite going well. And that’s sometimes where players give it back. He broke through that, so any of the road blocks that have come his way, either through fatigue, timing, level of play and performance fluctuating a little bit, he’s been able to break through it as a young player.

The Red Wings, with the moms happily watching from the Family Room at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center, practiced on Friday morning. Patrick Kane didn’t participate but skated by himself before his teammates took the ice.

McLellan said the veteran forward won’t play on Saturday against Washington, which is ranked second in the Metropolitan Division and most recently snapped a three-game winless streak with a 4-0 shutout win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.

“Their veterans have maintained a high level of play,” McLellan said about the Capitals. “Look at what Ovi is doing. You look at John Carlson. Tom Wilson has been around a while. That established Stanley Cup-winning core is still there… They’ve developed some players, added and either traded for or signed players that have fit their style.”

Wilson leads Washington with 33 points (17 goals, 16 assists), while captain Alex Ovechkin is second with 31 points (14 goals, 17 assists) and Jakob Chychrun is third with 28 points (14 goals, 14 assists). Goalie Logan Thompson made 22 saves against Toronto for his second shutout in his past four contests, improving to 14-7-3 with a 2.00 goals-against average and .925 save percentage this season.

“We know what they were doing last year and we had a tough time handling them,” McLellan said. “This year, they haven’t given anything back. We got our work cut out for us.”