March 2, 2026; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Nashville Predators defenseman Nick Blankenberg (37) chases Detroit Red Wings center Marco Casper (92) during the third period at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images The Detroit Red Wings play their first home game since late January when they host the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
The Red Wings, who sit in third place in a very tight Atlantic Division race, last played on Jan. 31 when they lost a 5-0 decision to the Colorado Avalanche at Little Caesars Arena.
Detroit has played five straight road contests (3-2-0) during the three-week Olympic break and won 4-2 at Nashville on Monday.
Alex DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond each had a goal and an assist against the Predators, while Cam Talbot made 18 saves in relief of the injured John Gibson.
Detroit enters Wednesday’s contest just four points behind first-place Tampa Bay and two behind the hot Buffalo Sabers in the Atlantic. The Red Wings are one point ahead of the fourth-place Montreal Canadiens and three points ahead of the fifth-place Boston Bruins, with the latter two teams currently holding two Eastern Conference wild card spots.
The win over the Predators was a nice rebound for Detroit after coach Todd MacLellan called his team back after Saturday’s 5-2 loss at Carolina.
“Right now we have players who are playing well and playing hard,” McLellan said. “Then you have some guys that just wear the jersey, and what that means is they’re skating in the jersey and eating up minutes, but we need more. We definitely need more.”
McLellan had no complaints after Monday’s win.
“I thought we played well from the start,” McLellan said. “I thought we responded pretty well to this one because we knew it was a must-win for us.”
Talbot also received praise for coming off the bench after Gibson went down.
“It was impressive for him to come in and pinch-hit the way he did,” McLellan said. “At the end of the (first) period, (Gibson) took a high-shoulder shot, so to speak, like a stinger. When you get that, you don’t feel it right away. I think it’s okay now.”
Vegas plays the second game of a back-to-back that started with a 3-2 loss Tuesday in Buffalo. This is the team’s third straight loss.
He scored five goals in Game 3 for the Golden Knights, the final contest of a five-game road trip that began with a 6-4 win at Los Angeles last Wednesday. But then losses came against Washington (3-2), Pittsburgh (5-0) and Tuesday against the Sabers.
Slow starts continued to plague Vegas.
The Golden Knights were outscored 12-3 in the first two periods of four games on the trip. They came back from a 3-0 deficit against the Sabers to fall one goal short.
“It’s not easy to come back from 3-0 down every game, especially in this league,” said forward Ivan Barbashev. “Scoring goals is difficult. We need to do a better job in starting, especially when trying to score goals early in the game.”
“We’ve been down this road before,” Las Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We get behind, kind of get punched, and go into our game. We’ve been talking about trying to get there before a lot of that happens. I thought we were sticking with it, and if we had more time, who knows? We just have to be faster. We can’t be behind all the time.”
–Field level media
