‘We couldn’t be happier to have them here’: Red Wings very excited for Mom’s Trip this weekend

DETROIT -- Before the Detroit Red Wings took off for the nation’s capital following their practice at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center on Friday morning, some very special guests also needed to be checked in on the manifest -- their moms.

“It makes it feel a little bit different than a normal road trip,” Alex DeBrincat said. “It’ll be pretty fun having them all around and for them to experience our day-to-day lives. Pretty cool to see everyone together.”

This weekend’s back-to-back home-and-home set against the Washington Capitals, which begins at Capital One Arena on Saturday afternoon, also marks the Red Wings’ first Mom’s Trip since the 2019-2020 season.

“We took some time this morning to have each of the players introduce their moms and tell us a quick, little funny story, about their sons that didn’t necessarily have anything to do with hockey,” Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said. “We’ve got a lot of ammo now, so it’s good.”

In addition to the matinee games themselves, the mothers have a busy schedule over the next few days, including a dinner together in Washington D.C. on Friday night and a tour of the White House on Saturday morning.

“I’m sure dinner [on Friday night] with everyone will be great,” DeBrincat said. “Just getting to know other people’s families is great as well. It definitely gets us closer as a team and it’s cool to meet where everyone comes from.”

For James van Riemsdyk, potentially facing off against one of his brothers, Capitals defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk, with their mom cheering them on from the stands would be really cool.

“It’s awesome,” van Riemsdyk said. “In my experience, I think [moms are] the more underappreciated parent. Being able to highlight that and how special they are to all of us, all of the sacrifices that they’ve made over the years and all the wisdom and guidance and things we’ve learned from them, we owe a lot to our moms for what they’ve done for us along the way. This is a fun moment to get to share with them, a little taste of our world.”

Axel Sandin-Pellikka also said he’s eager for his mother to “see how we have it” in the NHL.

“This is super cool,” Sandin-Pellikka said. “This morning, my mom said to me, ‘This is the first time ever doing this. We never get to do this back home in Sweden.’ So, this is new for all of us. I think it’s going to be a very fun experience. We’ll have a good dinner [on Friday night]. It’s good for them to see how we have it here, because we have it really good.”

Emmitt Finnie’s mom, Shannon, said she’s thrilled to be able to spend some extra time with her son and his teammates this weekend.

“He doesn’t get to come home for Christmas, so this will be our first Christmas without him at home,” she said. “I’m always a little bit of a baby about that, but I was glad that I got a chance to see him before Christmas.”

Make no mistake, this weekend will surely be just as special Detroit’s players and staff as it is for the women who helped make their hockey dreams possible.

“I don’t know if you really know, as a kid, how much they sacrifice for you,” DeBrincat said. “Looking back on it, it’s pretty crazy how much work they missed to take you to school or [hockey] tournaments. Obviously, hockey isn’t a cheap sport, so it’s nice to give back to them a little bit here and throughout the year as well.”

McLellan agreed.

“I think back to everything my mom has done for me,” McLellan said. “Usually, when you think about family and hockey, you talk about the father. And yes, that’s a big thing. But the backbone, at least in my house, of keeping it all together and keeping us healthy and fed and everything else, was my mom. I’m sure that’s happened in a lot of these Red Wing families, and we couldn’t be happier to have them here.”