PREVIEW: Red Wings expecting competitive clash against visiting Bruins on Saturday

DETROIT -- Ten regular-season games remain for the Detroit Red Wings, who are trying to keep pace in the race for the Eastern Conference’s second Wild-Card spot and will host the Boston Bruins at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday night.

Set to wrap up their three-game season series with an 8 p.m. puck drop (TV broadcast coverage airing exclusively on ABC/ESPN+ and radio coverage on WWJ Newsradio 950 in Detroit), the Red Wings (33-33-6; 72 points) enter Saturday three points ahead of the Bruins (30-34-9; 69 points) and three points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets, who have one game in hand, for the second Wild-Card spot.

“You look at the position we’re in, it seems like no one has really taken advantage of that second Wild-Card spot,” Patrick Kane said. “That’s what we’re looking for. I think it’s nice to have those intentions, but at the same time it’s important to go out, make sure we’re doing the job and playing the right way. Sometimes you think about the end result a little too much instead of the process and you get ahead of yourself a little bit. We got to stay in the moment and worry about the one tonight.”

Detroit will try to earn a split of this two-game homestand after falling to the Ottawa Senators, 4-3, on Thursday. The Red Wings trailed by three goals around the halfway mark of the third period and while they made a valiant effort to cut their deficit to one, ultimately couldn’t make up the difference against the Senators.

“Sometimes things happen, but you can’t let it snowball into something else,” Kane said. “You look at our last game, obviously we had a lot of chances on the power play in the first period and we didn’t capitalize, but we’re still outshooting the team. We had a lot of momentum on our side, so we just got to keep that momentum.”

Head coach Todd McLellan has spoken often about the importance of Detroit managing its game when faced with adversity during contests. To emphasize this point, he used an analogy about golf following Saturday’s morning skate.

“You’re on the golf course and you have a bad tee shot, that doesn’t mean you have to have a bad round,” McLellan said. “You go from playing birdie golf to playing par golf during that time. You clean things up, get on the green and try to play safe, put it in and you take your par instead of your birdie. When we get into a bad drive situation, all of a sudden, we are swinging away and it gets worse instead of managing it.”

The Red Wings skated without goalie Petr Mrazek and Elmer Soderblom, both of whom are dealing with undisclosed injuries, on Saturday morning. McLellan had no additional update on the status of Mrazek, who left early in the first period against the Utah Hockey Club on Monday, and said that Soderblom is “still going to be day-to-day.”

“I don’t see him playing in St. Louis [on April 1],” McLellan said about Soderblom, who will miss his third straight game on Saturday. “I don’t know for sure though. That’s how close he is, but how far away he is.”

Winless in their last seven straight games, the Bruins last played on Wednesday, when they dropped a 6-2 decision to the Anaheim Ducks.

David Pastrnak is enjoying another productive campaign in Boston with a team-high 85 points (35 goals, 50 assists), which also ranks eighth in the NHL in scoring among all players. Behind Pastrank on the Bruins’ scoring leaderboard is Pavel Zacha (44 points), Morgan Geekie (41 points) and Casey Mittelstadt (38 points).

Re-signed to an eight-year contract extension on Oct. 6, goaltender Jeremy Swayman has a 20-25-6 record with a 3.12 goals-against average, .892 save percentage and four shutouts this season.

“I’m sure they’re a frustrated team right now,” Kane said about the Bruins. “Always a tough team to play against. Seems like they’ve had a little bit of a tough road trip here going out West, so I’m sure they’ll be frustrated and ready to go. Always a dangerous team, always competitive games. They bring energy and physicality, so sometimes it’s not so much about the opponent as it is about us in here. You got to respect the team they have.”