Red Wings 'excited to get going' as their 2026-27 Opening Night nears

DETROIT – After a competitive Training Camp, four preseason games and a few more detail-oriented practices this week with a condensed group at BELFOR Training Center inside Little Caesars Arena, the Detroit Red Wings are eager for their 2026-27 Opening Night against the New York Rangers on Friday.

"We're super excited," Alex DeBrincat said after Thursday morning's practice. "Being one of the later games too —you're watching the games on TV the past couple of nights, and you see the intensity, and it looks so fun out there. I think we're definitely excited to get going and start off strong."

Several Red Wings players and head coach Todd McLellan have shared they would rather have started their regular season a little earlier than Friday, but they know they can’t control how the 84-game slate is pieced together.

“We got to show up and be ready for the game,” DeBrincat said. “I think having a couple games on the nights before, we know the intensity is going to be there. It’ll be the Rangers’ third game and our first, so we got to be ready to play. They will have gotten some stuff out of their legs and made mistakes already, and we haven’t. We got to show up on time.”

Of Detroit’s 14 contests in October, only five are on the road — and seven of their first eight are at home.

“Early urgency,” McLellan said. “Another reason why we adopted that moniker, if you will. A chance to put our game together here at home. I don’t think fatigue should be a factor in these first eight or nine games. We’re not travelling all over the place, one back-to-back, so we should have good practice time. We should feel good about being in our building and being in front of our fans.”

For offseason additions like goaltender Daniil Tarasov, Friday night comes with an added level of excitement and motivation.

“There’s a good feeling that you get when you start a season at home,” Tarasov said. “I know what it’s like playing here, because I’ve played here against the Red Wings before, and I know it’s a really good fanbase. We just have to be ready from the first minute and show our best hockey tomorrow night.”

For all the excitement around them, McLellan reiterated that openers have a way of being unpredictable and then teams tend to find their footing as the season progresses.

"We'll play the game," McLellan said. "The games have been sloppy, in my opinion, watching again last night. So, if we can eliminate that, we'll give ourselves a better chance of winning, and come Saturday morning, we'll have a blueprint more to work off of."

As for updates ahead of Friday’s Original Six clash, McLellan said Ben Chiarot “should be good” to go after missing Thursday’s practice. Dylan Larkin (upper body), meanwhile, will be unavailable against the Rangers and the Winnipeg Jets, who will be in town on Sunday afternoon. The 30-year-old forward skated Thursday but again wasn’t practicing on a regular line.

“He’s working with the training staff to push through,” McLellan said of Larkin. “I’m hoping for Game 3.”