PREVIEW: Red Wings open back-to-back preseason road set, first battling Penguins on Friday

PITTSBURGH -- The Detroit Red Wings will kick off a back-to-back road set as they continue forward in their 2025-26 preseason schedule when the club visits the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Friday night.

The Red Wings and Penguins will drop the puck at 7 p.m., with broadcast coverage on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit.

Friday’s Eastern Conference clash continues a busy stretch of four exhibition games in five days for Detroit, but Elmer Soderblom said all the players are embracing the intensity and volume of work that goes into getting ready for the regular season.

“You just have to be ready and prepared,” Soderblom said. “Eat and sleep well. Just try to take care of your body and be ready for whenever you’re going to play, so those are the main parts.”

Continuing to play with their foot on the gas this preseason, the Red Wings bested the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2, at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday. Five different players (Mason Appleton, Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, captain Dylan Larkin, Moritz Seider and Andrew Copp) all scored for Detroit, while goalies Cam Talbot and Michal Postava each played one half of the contest.

“It’s really good to get the games going and play opponents other than ourselves,” said Soderblom, who recorded an assist against Buffalo. “I think that’s going to bring a little bit more intensity and physicality, so it’s going to be fun getting more competitive games going here.”

The Red Wings departed for Pittsburgh after practicing at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center on Friday morning, and head coach Todd McLellan said the club will be dressing a more youthful lineup compared to what he deployed on Thursday.

“We have their lineup,” McLellan said. “Sometimes, teams will trade and you kind of match it a little bit if you can, but we’ll be a little bit younger. There will still be some veterans in the lineup, but not as many as there were last night.”

The condensed schedule of an NHL preseason might be an adjustment for the less experienced players on Detroit’s expanded exhibition roster, but as McLellan pointed out, many of these skaters already know what it takes to grind through this stretch of the fall.

“In the American League, they play three [games] in three [nights],” McLellan said. “They’re bussing all over the place. They’re pretty tough down there, so if you’ve played there for a while you’ve experienced the grind. The difference here may be the pace, skill level and size. Everything is happening a little bit quicker, so you can get run down. But so far, they’ve handled it real well. But they are human. We have to be aware of where they’re at.”

McLellan also announced that one of the veterans who will make his preseason debut on Friday is goalie John Gibson, who is also a Pittsburgh native.

“He’s only playing half a game,” McLellan said about Gibson. “Talbot only played half and Postava played the other half [on Thursday]. Gibby will play a half today and Postava will play the second half. Now, we’ve seen Postava and have worked the two veteran goaltenders into an environment. Obviously, Gibby wants to play in Pittsburgh, so we honored that.”