PREVIEW: Red Wings meet Avalanche in opener of four-game road trip on Saturday

DENVER – Setting out on their second four-game road trip in less than a month, the Detroit Red Wings will open this one with a Saturday night showdown against the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena.

“Finish this trip up, and I think we only have five more road games until Christmas, if you can believe that,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “We’ll get a good chunk of our road stuff out… We have to get out there and we have to get off to good starts. We need some production again from key people when they get their looks and touches. They’re going to have to produce.”

Detroit (7-7-3; 17 points) and Colorado (9-6-2; 20 points) – once fierce rivals – are set to drop the puck for the first time this season at 9 p.m. ET/7 p.m. MT, with broadcast coverage on Detroit SportsNet and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit). They'll conclude the season series at Little Caesars Arena on Dec. 3.

“We’ve played a couple of good teams lately, and we have a couple good games coming up,” Andreas Englund said. “We need to play a solid game and bring our game every night. If we can do that, we have a solid chance to win.”

Looking back on Thursday’s hard-fought 2-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights at Little Caesars Arena, Englund said there’s still plenty to feel encouraged about as he and his teammates shift their focus to making some necessary adjustments on the road.

“I thought we played pretty solid,” Englund said. “I think we needed to close a little bit quicker in the D-zone, just make better passes to each other and be available more so we can play a little bit quicker with the puck.”

Detroit held an optional morning skate at Ball Arena on Saturday, and McLellan explained that the club’s recent schedule has influenced how it balances getting reps on the ice with preserving energy for games.

“When we look at the schedule this year, there are more breaks than what we’ve had in the past two years simply because of the Olympics and the 4 Nations tournament,” McLellan said. “We don’t have that, so it’s spread out a little bit more. We have had our games clumped together, if you will. We’ve got to get through this set of six games in 10 nights right now, so we’re aware of the fatigue factor and the travel. Practices have been a little bit shorter, maybe not as physical as we’d normally be.”

The Avalanche most recently fell 3-2 in overtime to the Nashville Predators on Thursday, moving their home-ice record to 6-1-1 this season. Nathan MacKinnon paces Colorado with 27 points (nine goals, 18 assists) through 17 games, ahead of Martin Necas’ 19 points (seven goals, 19 assists) and Cale Makar’s 18 points (four goals, 14 assists).

“The power in his game is incredible actually,” McLellan said of MacKinnon. “We talk about (Michael) Brandsegg-Nygård being a bully, well this is a bully who scores 50. Maybe (Brandsegg-Nygård) will get there one day, but this is a bully who scores 50 and can flat-out fly. He doesn’t get enough credit for his speed and ability to power through. Very, very competitive person too. Like, just driven. On the bench, he’s driven. He wants to be out there all the time.”

Anton Johansson said he’s excited to play against two of the NHL’s biggest stars in MacKinnon and Makar for the first time in his career.

“It’s cool,” the 22-year-old rookie defenseman said. “You’re playing against top players every game. It’s so cool to play against those guys that you’ve grown up watching.”