But, as Dylan Larkin noted, it’s only natural to peek at the standings, especially when things are going as well as they have been the past 2½ weeks for the Detroit Red Wings.

The Red Wings (21-19-4) bounced back strong from Tuesday’s 6-3 loss to San Jose, which snapped their seven-game winning streak, in the first stop of a challenging four-game trip. Florida (26-17-3) was 12-0-1 in its past 13 games against the Red Wings.

On Thursday night, the Detroit Red Wings beat the Florida Panthers in regulation for the first time since 2021. The Red Wings, who had gone 13 games without beating the Panthers in 60 minutes of play,

Larkin's empty netter to seal it, his 2nd of the game (from Kasper and Raymond). 🚨 Bonus road octopus is the cherry on top. 🐙 #LGRW pic.twitter.com/IJ8mCwzFO5

The Detroit Red Wings opened their four-game road trip with a 5-2 win over the defending Stanley Cup champs, thanks to three power play goals Thursday.

Detroit Red Wings have a pair of huge games against Atlantic Division opponents up first on the four-game road trip.

With the Panthers getting into penalty trouble in the second period, the Red Wings made them pay a second time when Dylan Larkin went to the crease and re-directed a tape-to-tape centering feed from Patrick Kane through traffic into the cage to make it 2-1 at 7:52.