PREVIEW: Red Wings open two-game road trip with battle against Blue Jackets on Thursday

COLUMBUS – Looking to carry over the momentum from the second half of their recent four-game homestand, the Detroit Wings will go for their third straight win when they visit the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Thursday night.

Puck drop between the Red Wings (15-18-4; 34 points) and Blue Jackets (16-16-6; 38 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). Thursday’s matchup begins the season series between the Eastern Conference clubs, who will face off next in Detroit on Feb. 27 and then at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, for the NHL’s 2025 Stadium Series on March 1.

“I’m excited to see how our team will respond on the road because we’re a week into [being] together as a group,” Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said. “We have concepts in place, and they feel good about themselves.”

On Tuesday, nine different players recorded at least a point for Detroit in a 4-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Notably boosted by multi-point efforts from J.T. Compher (one goal, one assist), Jonatan Berggren (one goal, one assist) and Lucas Raymond (two assists), the Red Wings improved to 4-2-1 when hosting a game on New Year’s Eve inside Little Caesars Arena.

Tuesday’s game was also just McLellan’s third as Detroit’s new bench boss, and according to the 57-year-old, he feels encouraged by the imprint he’s made on the players since rejoining the organization last Thursday.

“Some of the areas that we’ve picked, we’ve gone after pretty hard,” McLellan said. “Hasn’t been many, but what we have picked we’ve worked hard in practice. Seen some of it in the games. Players are quite receptive. The effort we’re getting in practice is sharp. They’re coming to the rink to get better, not just to practice. So far, so good, but it’s no honeymoon. We’ll see where it all goes later on.”

Currently ranked fifth in the Metropolitan Division, the Blue Jackets improved to 12-4-3 on home ice after rallying to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes in a shootout, 3-2, on Tuesday.

Aside from Kirill Marchenko (16-26—42) and Zach Werenski (11-29—40), both of whom have passed the 40-point mark this season, Columbus has gotten offensive contributions from Sean Monahan (13-23—36), Dmitri Voronkov (13-11—24) and Kent Johnson (10-11—21). Between the pipes, goaltender Elvis Merzlikins has a 12-9-3 record with a 3.07 goals-against average, .891 save percentage and one shutout in 24 games this season.

“They have a real good home record,” McLellan said about the Blue Jackets. “They’ve played really well there, and then we’re going to play one of the best teams in the league. So these six, seven, eight periods we’re going to play are---I think, again, I talked about roadmaps--- going to provide us a roadmap to where we’re going to go as a group. Can we keep forging forward or do we have to go back and review things? I’m excited to see how the group will play.”