The Red Wings went into Saturday night’s Sharks Vs Red Wings meeting looking to extend their point streak to four games, and the timing mattered as much as the result. This was Detroit’s final home game until Oct. 29, so the visit from San Jose carried a little extra weight at Little Caesars Arena.
That kind of short home stretch can tell you something about a team. The Red Wings had earned points in three straight contests, including Thursday night’s 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, and Todd McLellan said the group has shown resilience as it works through the early part of the season.
“To this point, it’s been a fairly resilient group with everything going on,” McLellan said. “We’ve adjusted the way we’ve played, structurally, a little bit and they’ve picked that up fairly fast.”
He added that those changes have helped Detroit check better than it has in the past. But McLellan was also clear that the job is not finished.
“On the other side of the coin, we’ve still got to find some ways to manufacture some offense and clean up the penalty kill a little bit,” he said.
Why Detroit’s recent form matters
For the Red Wings, the encouraging sign is that the performances have come with different kinds of contributions. Against Philadelphia, Daniil Tarasov made 17 saves, while Anton Johansson and Andrew Copp scored the goals in a 2-1 win. That is the sort of spread teams want early in a season, because it suggests the load is not falling on one line alone.
Lucas Raymond has also seen reasons for optimism in the way Detroit has played. He said the team has “grown in a lot of areas,” and pointed to the defensive game as a strength during long stretches.
“Obviously, a few games that we would’ve liked and that we’ve felt we were right there, but we’re going every game,” Raymond said. “I think our last game was probably one of our best. We were patient.”
That patience has been a theme in how the Red Wings have talked about their play. Raymond said Detroit stayed with its game plan against Philadelphia and let the opening come later in the night.
“We stuck with our game, kind of let it come to us and got rewarded towards the end with Copp’s good goal,” he said. “Before that, there was plenty of opportunity to win it. It didn’t frustrate us.”
A useful stretch before the schedule tightens again
The bigger picture for Detroit is that this was not just another home date. After Saturday, the Red Wings would not return to Little Caesars Arena until Oct. 29, which makes the next phase of the schedule feel more demanding even at this early stage.
There was also a fresh sense of stability around the club during the week. On Wednesday, Alex DeBrincat signed a seven-year contract extension with the Red Wings, and he made clear how much the jersey means to him.
“I’m so proud to be a Red Wing and put on that jersey every night,” he said.
That sits neatly alongside the wider mood around the team. Raymond spoke about the importance of firsts in a Red Wings career, recalling his own first NHL goal against Columbus at home on Oct. 19, 2021, and noting how special those moments can be for a young player.
“It was against Columbus at home, such a special feeling,” he said. “Obviously, it’s like different tiers and different types of firsts you take. You make your NHL debut – it’s a dream come true. Then, you get your first NHL goal – it’s an unreal feeling.”
For Detroit, the task against the Sharks was simple enough on paper: keep the momentum going, protect the home form, and try to turn a solid early stretch into something more lasting. For San Jose, the game opened a six-game road trip after a 4-3 shootout win over the Nashville Predators, so both teams arrived with their own sense of purpose. After Saturday, though, the Red Wings’ immediate focus was clear — make the most of the points already banked and carry that form into the next run of games.
