from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

After discussing how to handle the next stretch on their schedule, the Detroit Red Wings settled on making it all one trip: Five games, 10 days, two border crossings and two coasts.

The Wings scheduled their outgoing leg for 11:30 a.m. Sunday, in order to get to Vancouver, British Columbia, in time to watch Super Bowl 57. They play the Canucks on Monday, then travel east to Alberta to play the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday and Calgary Flames on Thursday, then fly west again, to Seattle, to play the Kraken on Saturday. The plan is to fly from Seattle to Washington on Sunday, ahead of playing the Capitals on Feb. 21.

"It’s unique but it’s all part of it," coach Derek Lalonde said Saturday. "We thoroughly talked about it."

Road trips are part of the NHL season. The Wings' longest one of the season, though, comes at a crucial time: They've won their past two games to improve to 23-20-8, edging within seven points of a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race — albeit with three teams ahead of them.

"We’ve set goals and we need to get there," Dylan Larkin said after his three-point performance in Saturday's 5-2 victory over the Canucks. "We need some wins. We need a lot of wins. But there hasn’t been one guy that seems like they’re not into going for it, and that’s been very refreshing."

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