from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

There had been talk of flying back to Detroit after Thursday’s game, but that didn’t pan out. Instead, the Wings were scheduled to spend Friday bussing to Ottawa’s airport, flying to Albany, New York, to clear U.S. Customs, flying on to White Plains, New York, and bussing to their hotel in Jersey City. Their game is 1 p.m. Saturday.

“All I care about is that that plane takes off and that plane lands on the ground,” Blashill said. “And that we’re ready to play a hockey game.”...

This trip will have the Wings check in and out of hotels more times than usual for a two-game affair: Twice in Ottawa, twice in New Jersey. The latter is because the Wings are staying overnight Saturday, since players wanted to have the annual rookie dinner in New York City. Some staff looked into flying home commercially Saturday evening only to find there wasn’t a late enough direct flight. Instead, there will be another night in a third hotel.

“Guys are going to take advantage of break in the schedule and have an opportunity to stay in New York and have a team dinner,” Blashill said. “The schedule is such it didn’t present a very good opportunity until late, late, late in the year and at that point the year is over and what’s the point? So, it’s way better to do it earlier. The other thing is, we don’t play again until Wednesday, so this gave us a good opportunity to do that.”

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