Upcoming four-game homestand offers plenty of opportunity for Red Wings, who want to build off successful two-game road trip

DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings are aiming to capitalize on what remains a home-heavy month of January, as they’re set to play the next four games and seven of the next 12 at Little Caesars Arena.

“We just have to continue to play like we’ve been playing,” goalie Cam Talbot said after Monday morning’s practice at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center. “We’ve really turned things around here by winning four in a row. We have to keep this good feeling going by establishing home ice again. Making this building hard to come in and play will be huge for us to climb up the standings, so these next four are going to be huge.”

Of the Red Wings’ first 39 games this season, 21 have been played at Little Caesars Arena, in which they’ve posted a 9-10-2 record. Before sweeping its most recent two-game road trip, Detroit was also trending in the right direction on home ice by winning two straight contests.

Talbot said there’s a real boost of positive energy the players get from Hockeytown faithful.

“You could sense the momentum during the first period of the Washington game [on Dec. 29],” Talbot said. “We scored one [goal], then two and [the fans] start getting loud. We score three, they get really loud. We get four, and the roof blows off the place. That’s the momentum we have to continue to ride. The more we can get our fans engaged like that and have them behind us, it’s going to make this a tough building to play in for other teams.”

Managing momentum swings during games is difficult enough but keeping it for sustained stretches throughout a season is a completely different challenge. That’s why Talbot said Detroit, which enters Tuesday’s clash against the Ottawa Senators riding some momentum of its own, needs to focus on staying in the moment.

“You can win four games in a row, and you get a little bit too high or cocky, then things can slip,” Talbot said. “You could go out there and lay an egg, and then that snowballs into something. In the dressing room you have to stay even keeled. You can’t get too high or too low because it’s a long season. Right now, we’re on the way up. We want to continue to keep climbing. If we take care of that mentality off the ice, on the ice we’re going to be that much more even keeled when we’re playing, continue making smart decisions and building our game.”

Ingraining those key elements, as Talbot mentioned, as part of their identity continued for the Red Wings during Monday’s practice, which Jeff Petry (lower body) and Justin Holl (personal reasons) weren’t able to participate in.

“He won’t play tomorrow,” Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said about Petry, who will miss his second straight game and has six points (one goal, five assists) in 34 contests this season. “He’s still getting evaluated. I don’t have a timeline for him. Justin had a personal family thing today that he was taking care of, and he should be ready to go tomorrow.”