1:00p EST, Little Caesars Arena

Detroit, MI

TV: FS-D

Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket // 1270 AM CBS Sports Radio

Blues Blog: St Louis Game Time

Will the real Detroit Red Wings please stand up? It seems so far that this season has been roller coaster hill after another. The latest hill sees the Red Wings trying to climb back up the Atlantic Division track after plummeting down a huge 7 game hill. They registered one of their best games of the season three nights ago against a very good Winnipeg team. This afternoon the find themselves facing off against another really good team as their old rival St. Louis Blues get their first look at the LCA.

The Blues come into the game on a two game winning streak after shutting out Dallas on Thursday 3-0 and are currently leading the Central Division standings. Up front St. Louis leans a lot on their top two lines for offense. Brayden Schenn leads the team in goals with 14. Jaden Schwartz and all world forward Vladimir Tarasenko are right behind him with 13. Paul Stastny, Vladimir Sobotka and Alex Steen round out the lines with each having double digit assists. While not as formidable on the blue line as they were before trading Kevin Shattenkirk last season, St. Louis is still quite dangerous on the back end. Lead by perennial All Star and sometimes overlooked Alex Pietrangelo, the talented Colton Parayko and the solid Carl Gunnarsson this is one of the better blue lines in the league and a big reason why St. Louis is having the early season success they have enjoyed so far. In net Jake Allen has had the lion’s share of the workload so far this season and has not disappointed. He has very similar numbers to Jimmy Howard (with a better GAA and obviously more wins) and Carter Hutton has been just as good (if not a little better) in the handful of games he has gotten into as well.

This is a balanced and skilled St. Louis Blues team that has given the Red Wings fits at times in recent years. The Red Wings are going to have to play just as inspired and focused as they did against Winnipeg if they want to take two points and move up another clink in the hill this afternoon. Hopefully the addition of the pesky Tyler Bertuzzi into the lineup will help them do just that.

No words yet on how the lines will shake out but with the way they played last game I expect Blashill will look to keep the lines the same to start out with Bertuzzi slotting in for the under the weather David Booth.

Predicted Lineups

Detroit Red Wings

Gustav Nyquist - Henrik Zetterberg - Justin Abdelkader

Tomas Tatar - Dylan Larkin - Anthony Mantha

Darren Helm - Frans Nielsen - Luke Glendening

Andreas Athanasiou - Martin Frk – Tyler Bertuzzi

Danny DeKeyser – Mike Green

Jonathan Ericsson – Trevor Daley

Niklas Kronwall – Nick Jensen

Xavier Ouellet

Jimmy Howard

Petr Mrazek

Scratches: Luke Witkowski (Suspended)

Injuries: David Booth (illness), Johan Franzen (LTIR)

St. Louis Blues

Vladimir Sobotka – Paul Stastny – Vladimir Tarasenko

Jaden Schwartz – Brayden Schenn – Alex Steen

Magnus Paararvi – Patrik Bergland – Dimitrij Jaskin

Scottie Upshall – Kyle Brodziak – Chris Thorburn

Jay Bouwmeester – Alex Pietrangelo

Joel Edmundson – Colton Parayko

Vince Dunn – Carl Gunnarsson

Jake Allen

Carter Hutton

Injuries: Robby Fabbri, Zachary Sanford