Red Wings see first long road trip of 2026-27 season as ‘good opportunity for guys to get closer and bond’

DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings practiced at BELFOR Training Center inside Little Caesars Arena on Monday morning before departing for their first extended road trip of the 2026-27 season — four games across the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada from Oct. 20-27, a sharp schedule change after playing seven of their first eight games on home ice.

“We’ve spent one night in a hotel all year basically, because our exhibition games are day of,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said following Monday’s practice. “It’ll be nice to get away. We talk about bonding, team building and stuff like that. They’ll have their dinners, establish a routine on the road. There’ll be some fun, some laughs too. But it’s still a working trip, and we’ve got to be prepared to go starting in Seattle.”

Detroit (3-3-2; 8 points) will first face the Seattle Kraken (5-3-1; 11 points) on Tuesday, then visit the Vancouver Canucks (2-7-1; 5 points) on Thursday and the Calgary Flames (2-6-0; 4 points) on Saturday before wrapping it up next Monday against the Edmonton Oilers (6-1-1; 13 points). The Red Wings fared well against Western Conference foes last season, going 19-10-3 overall and 10-4-2 on the road.

But beyond the points earned in the standings, Andrew Copp believes road wins can provide a valuable confidence boost and create positive momentum that carries over from one game to the next.

“You’re always excited to get together with the group, get some team bonding and get on the plane,” Copp said. “I feel like you go into another team’s arena and win, you have a happy flight right after. There’s a lot of confidence and good vibes that can go along with that, so hopefully we can take advantage of the trip and make the most of it.”

Keegan Kolesar said the timing of this road trip – Detroit is currently riding a four-game point streak – is advantageous for several reasons.

“It’s awesome to be going on the road feeling confident, especially after we were able to string together some wins there,” Kolesar said. “Being on the road is tough, but this’ll be a good opportunity for guys to get closer and bond.”

Kolesar also sees the Red Wings continuing to build toward the type of squad they want to be, a process that’ll be tested in hostile environments over the next several days.

“Defensively, we’ve been playing well,” Kolesar said. “I still think we can clean up the PK and not take as many penalties as we have been in games, but we’re coming out with wins in different ways - that’s huge. You know the old saying ‘they don’t ask how, they just ask how many,’ so it’s been good that we’re coming away with points.”

As Copp sees it, a good road game for Detroit involves a bunch of key factors coming together.

“We got to go in and not give the other team a lot of room to operate,” Copp said. “I think getting a fast start. We haven’t started as fast as we would’ve wanted to (in games), maybe getting that first goal, which is going to be paramount the rest of the way. Obviously, when we kill great, it’s great. When we don’t, it hasn’t been good enough. We’re kind of too high, too low on that front so hopefully we can steady that.”

Marco Kasper (upper body) and Mason Appleton (undisclosed) won’t accompany the Red Wings on this trip, but J.T. Compher (undisclosed) will travel with them. Compher, who hasn’t played since Oct. 4 but has been skating with the group since last week, rotated with Sheldon Dries on the fourth line alongside Nate Danielson and Keegan Kolesar during Monday’s practice.

As far as how Detroit’s goaltending rotation shapes out over these next four contests, that remains to be determined beyond Tuesday’s clash against the Kraken.

“(Daniil Tarasov) will start tomorrow, and then we’ll just make decisions as we go forward,” McLellan said. “We’ll be on the road now and travelling. The fatigue factor starts to play into some of the decisions. It’s easy when you’re at home, you play games, sleep in your own bed, get up, have all your treatments and everything here. On the road, you don’t quite have that, so we’ll have to make good decisions based on goaltenders.”