Todd McLellan observed during his first extended road trip running the Detroit Red Wings’ bench that opponents seemed more respectful.
Now, as they head out on their longest remaining trek of the season, it’s unlikely the Wings will be treated with oversight on any of the stops. They’ve won three in a row headed into Thursday’s matchup in Edmonton against the Oilers and are 11-4-1 since McLellan’s arrival on Dec. 26. That has stoked what McLellan a few days ago described as a sense of belief within the team, and reinforced his comments from mid-January, when he noted that, “we’ve probably earned some respect of some of the other teams, and they may take us a little more serious, which is a great thing.”
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The Wings (24-21-5) were scheduled to go wheels up at 2 p.m. Wednesday after practicing at Little Caesars Arena. Patrick Kane (upper body) took part in drills, but sat out power play reps and isn’t expected to be ready Thursday. Vladimir Tarasenko (unwell last two days) practiced and is expected to be available.
J.T. Compher (upper body) didn’t practice but was expected to be on the trip, while Jeff Petry (injured) didn’t and isn’t.
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The Wings rallied from a two-goal deficit against the Los Angeles Kings to win without any of those four in the lineup, which spoke to that sense of belief McLellan sees. Veteran Andrew Copp contrasted that with the way the Wings limped into Christmas on a three-game losing streak.
You look at that Montreal game, the one in Montreal after the tough loss the night before — usually a good team is going to respond,” Copp said. “That night in Montreal, we did not respond, and we were not feeling good about ourselves. In the third period, we were down 5-1, there wasn’t a lot of fight, much push back.
“In contrast to that, some of these games that we’ve had lately — you’re down 2-0 to L.A., that’s a really hard time to come back on. There’s a lot of belief, a lot of fight, an ability to handle adversity, within the group. There’s a togetherness that we clearly did not have before.”
