from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

The way to San Jose presented itself as a bit more encouraging to the Detroit Red Wings after their latest performance on the road.

As veteran defenseman and alternate captain Marc Staal put it after Sunday's 4-3 shootout loss at the Ducks, "we're trying to change the tide on the road and that’s something we need to do to be where we want to be. We just have to take the good and go into San Jose with some confidence and try to finish this road trip off with a win."

The Wings (16-16-4) are 0-1-1 on the trip, but they buoyed themselves with a significantly better performance offensively and defensively against the Ducks than in Saturday's 4-0 loss at the Kings, where a 27-2 first-period shot deficit "was embarrassing," coach Jeff Blashill said.

Blashill was much more pleased with the details of Sunday's game.

"Our second was excellent," he said. "That’s how we have to play to be successful, we have to hound, we have to be in their end. We did a good job with that. We were down in the third and found a way to tie it. Those are positives, things we can grow from.

"I certainly think we had opportunities to win the hockey game. We did enough good things to be in position to get the two points."

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