Detroit Red Wings forward Andrew Copp addressed the team’s crucial four-game road trip as they pursue a playoff position.
“This is a huge test, four good teams, teams that we haven’t really faced yet this year, teams that are above us in the standings,” Copp said Wednesday. “So this is gonna be a real good measuring-stick road trip for us.”
The Red Wings face the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday and Saturday, followed by the Dallas Stars on Sunday. The trip ends against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.
Detroit sits five points out of a wild-card position in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Eastern Conference Wild Card Standings
Here’s how the race looked entering Wednesday’s two-game slate:
| Rank | Team | GP | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| WC1 | Boston Bruins | 46 | 49 |
| WC2 | Columbus Blue Jackets | 44 | 48 |
| 3 | Ottawa Senators | 43 | 47 |
| 4 | Montreal Canadiens | 43 | 46 |
| 5 | Detroit Red Wings | 43 | 44 |
| 6 | Philadelphia Flyers | 45 | 44 |
| 7 | Pittsburgh Penguins | 46 | 44 |
| 8 | New York Rangers | 43 | 43 |
| 9 | New York Islanders | 43 | 41 |
| 10 | Buffalo Sabres | 43 | 37 |
The Red Wings went 7-2-0 since Todd McLellan became head coach in December.
“What I don’t want them to do is get caught up in a seven-game win streak or a four-game losing streak. I want them to live in the moment,” McLellan said. “There’s so much noise that goes on. It can be hard if you get caught up in all of that stuff. It can take you down or it could put you too far up.”
Detroit’s seven-game winning streak ended Tuesday with a 6-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks.
“Things were coming easy to us, so you forget how hard it is and how hard you have to fight to keep a roll like that going,” Copp said. “Obviously we got a nice reminder of that last night. We can either use it as a point to springboard and as a teaching moment, or we can use it as a point in the season where we had something going but we couldn’t get it going again.”
