After a trip to New York went bust, the Detroit Red Wings appear back on track and will test their form with a three-game visit to California that starts Thursday against the Los Angeles Kings.
The Red Wings saw their five-game winning streak end last week with losses at the Buffalo Sabres and the New York Islanders. They responded with consecutive victories over the St. Louis Blues, including a 5-2 win on the road Tuesday.
Dylan Larkin scored twice and dished an assist in the road win after Detroit rallied from a four-goal deficit for a 6-4 home victory over St. Louis on Saturday. John Gibson made 20 saves Tuesday and is now 4-2-0 in his first season with the team.
Larkin reached 250 career goals when he delivered into an empty net with 1:07 remaining. It was his second multi-goal game over the last five contests. Larkin has at least one point in nine of 10 games this season and leads the team with 16 points (eight goals, eight assists).
“I thought we played a pretty solid game,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “We played well offensively when we needed to. I thought we checked much better through the neutral zone coming into our zone and we were connected on our breakouts. All of the sudden, you’ve got the puck a little bit more.”
McLellan now brings the Red Wings into a building he knows well. He was the Kings’ coach for five seasons (2019-24), with Los Angeles losing in the first round to the Edmonton Oilers in his last two postseasons with the team.
Kings head coach Jim Hiller can empathize with McLellan. He lost to the Oilers in the first round in 2023-24 after replacing McLellan behind the Los Angeles bench and finished last season the same way.
After a slow start, when the Kings won just once over their first six games, they have now won four of their last five.
Los Angeles just completed a successful five-game road trip (4-0-1), finishing it with a 4-3 victory at San Jose on Tuesday. The Kings fumbled away a three-goal lead before Brandt Clarke saved the day on a goal at 13:20 of the final period. Darcy Kuemper made 37 saves.
Clarke also had an assist on Corey Perry’s first-period goal, while Perry assisted on a second-period goal from Jeff Malott.
“There’s no question we didn’t deserve those two points, but there have been times this season we have, and we’ve been on the short end of a goaltending performance ourselves,” Hiller said. “We’ll take it.”
Adrian Kempe leads the Kings in points (14) and shares the team lead in goals (five) with Kevin Fiala.
Los Angeles will open a four-game homestand, with a six-game road trip looming after that. The Kings have earned one point in three home games (0-2-1) and are one of three NHL teams without a home victory.
