Detroit Red Wings at Colorado Avalanche, Projected Lineups, How to Watch

9:30p ET, Pepsi Center

Denver, CO

TV: FS-D+, ALT

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

Avalanche Blog: Mile High Hockey

Another day another game against a former rival from the Western Conference. The last time the Red Wings faced an old rival they played one of their better games of the season and beat a very good Chicago Blackhawks on the last trip into the Joe. Of course, they went and played a sloppy game against the New York Rangers after that. This time around the Red Wings head into Denver to take on the worst team in the NHL, the Colorado Avalanche.

On first look, as bad as the Red Wings have been this season they are still well ahead of the Avalanche in points. A closer look though shows the two teams are a lot closer than one would expect. The only reason the Red Wings are not fighting it out with Colorado for the top spot in the lottery is because they have had a penchant for getting games to overtime and won every one that made it to a shootout.

On the good news front, Coach Blashill confirmed yesterday that Anthony Mantha will rotate back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch the last two games. This is another one of those games where draft position be damned, I always want to beat Colorado.

Expected Lineups

Scratches: Drew Miller

Injuries:, Ryan Sproul, Jonathan Ericsson, Johan Franzen (LTIR), Joe Vitale (LTIR)

Scratches/Injuries: Semyon Varlamov, Nikita Zadorov