PREVIEW: Looking to right the ship, Red Wings visit Capitals on Friday to finish back-to-back set

WASHINGTON – After opening their back-to-back set with a 4-2 loss to the Utah Hockey Club at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday night, the Detroit Red Wings will look to quickly regroup and bounce back against the Eastern Conference-leading Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Friday night.

Puck drop between Detroit (30-26-6; 66 points) and Washington (40-14-8; 88 points) is set for 7 p.m., with broadcast coverage on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit). The Red Wings won the first game of the season series, 4-2, at Little Caesars Arena on Dec. 29.

Thursday’s loss, Detroit’s fourth in a row, saw captain Dylan Larkin and Jonatan Berggren each light the lamp for the Red Wings, who outshot Utah, 40-19, on the night.

“We just can’t find a win,” said Larkin, who brought his goal total up to 25 on the season. “We’ve lost not playing well and we’ve lost playing well. We’re losing in different ways. You look at the big picture, kind of zoom out a little bit, it’s four games. We got a chance [on Friday night] to right the ship, get that win and hopefully build confidence from there.”

Head coach Todd McLellan provided a straightforward assessment of Detroit’s play against Utah.

“After the first period, really happy with the way we played,” McLellan said. “The second period, we go and get the lead. The penalty kill, we got dragged up a little bit high and they end up with a 2-on-1 down low. Mistakes can happen. Then the third [period], it’s a wide-open game that anybody can win, and they found a way to capitalize.

“So, are we far off? We’re not winning right now, so we’re not where we need to be. We’re on the wrong side of the ledger. How much ground do we have to make up? We’re going to find out.”

Off the ice, however, the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline, which is set for 3 p.m. ET on Friday, looms. The Eastern Conference’s Wild-Card race remains exceedingly tight, as six clubs entered Friday within four points of each other. After Thursday’s slate of games, the Red Wings were one point behind the Ottawa Senators for the second Wild-Card spot.

Larkin feels Detroit has “made a case to continue to push this thing and keep playing for the playoffs.”

“We can’t be looking outside,” Larkin said. “We’re not going to get into the playoffs with 66 points, so you have to show up to the rink and play the game. You have to win hockey games to get into the playoffs. You can’t scoreboard watch. You can’t hope it happens. You have to go out there and do it.”

Because the Red Wings know they can only control the controllables, they’re keeping their focus on the Capitals, who have a comfortable lead in the Metropolitan Division and are just two points behind the Winnipeg Jets for the top spot in the NHL standings.

Washington, which is coming off a 3-2 overtime road win over the New York Rangers on Wednesday, is led offensively this season by Dylan Strome (18 goals, 43 assists), Pierre-Luc Dubois (16 goals, 37 assists) and Aliaksei Protas (23 goals, 28 assists).

Continuing his impressive chase towards NHL history, captain Alex Ovechkin paces the Capitals with 32 goals this season and is 10 away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record of 894.

Washington’s goaltending tandem of Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren has combined for a 2.49 goals-against average and .908 save percentage this season.

“We got to find a way to get on the right side of it,” McLellan said. “We obviously got to play better defensively, get another save and give our goaltenders and our overall defensive game a little bit of breathing room for mistakes. We haven’t done a lot of that lately.”