Enjoy the break, but don't forget that winning feeling.

That, in a nutshell, is the message Derek Lalonde had for the Detroit Red Wings as they capped a remarkable January at 9-2-2, earning nearly double the points they did in December. They squeezed a point out of Wednesday's 3-2 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators, after which players headed home — and then, like Patrick Kane, Lucas Raymond and Daniel Sprong, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, or, like Olli Määttä, to Florida. They can't be back at Little Caesars Arena until the afternoon of Feb. 8 — that's the deal under the NHL's collective bargaining agreement: no earlier than 2 p.m. — and don't play again until the afternoon of Feb. 10, against the Vancouver Canucks.

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"The one negative about the break is, sometimes when you’re away from it that long, you forget, or you maybe don’t have the muscle memory, of how hard you were actually competing," Lalonde said. "So we’ll have to get that back."

The Wings (26-18-6) just emerged from a month in which 10 of their 13 opponents were inside the playoff picture, and more of that is coming on the flip side of the break: The Canucks, who sit atop the NHL standings, are first up at Little Caesars Arena, and then the Wings head to western Canada to play the Edmonton Oilers, who'll come out of the All-Star break on Wednesday with a 16-game winning streak, and then the Canucks again — and really, it'll be just as relentless the last 30 games as the Wings try to end a seven-year playoff drought. They looked like they were going to be out of it early this season after limping through December with just 11 points, but starting with the trip to California at the start of January, the Wings have played looked like a team ready to battle for a chance to advance.

While the break does disrupt the momentum the Wings have built, a week away is a chance to refresh mentally and physically.

"We get a little bit of a break," Dylan Larkin said. "Throughout the season you get bumps and bruises and illness, so it’s a good break for a lot of guys and we’ll come back refreshed. February is another tough month, so we have to be ready to go."

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It isn't just those who have been grinding through opponents that will come back healthier: Kane (out since Jan. 14 with a lower-body injury), defenseman Ben Chiarot (Jan. 19, upper body) and goaltender Ville Husso (Dec. 18, lower body) are all expected to be available when the Wings get back to work.

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from  Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings focus on maintaining momentum during break