Morning Skate: Red Wings vs. Maple Leafs — Preview and How to Watch

How to Watch

Time: 7:30 PM EST

Where: Little Caesars Arena

TV: FS-D, TSN4

Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket/1270 AM

Game Preview

The Red Wings will host the Maple Leafs tonight, looking for their first win at the LCA this season. Since their move to the Eastern Conference in the 2013-14 season, the Wings are 9-9-3 overall against the Leafs — however, the buds have won seven of the last eight meetings. It’s safe to say this younger Wings squad will have to bring its ‘A’ game tonight if they want to knock off the high octane Leafs offense. The boys in blue and white don’t seem to be missing William Nylander as they currently lead the NHL in goals for (20) through four games. Meanwhile, the Wings have mustered just six tallies through three games (23rd in the NHL).

Jeff Blashill is looking to get the offense going through his favorite art, line juggling, as he swapped Justin Abdelkader and Gustav Nyquist between the top two lines. Yes, Abby has been struggling to get going with Andreas Athanasiou, but I’m not sure this is the best strategy (although Blashill has a tendency to stray from common sense at times) and a move featuring Tyler Bertuzzi in the top six may have been better.

Injury Watch

The Wings are decimated by injuries to their blueline and got some bad news yesterday that rookie Dennis Cholowski will likely miss the next two games with an upper-body injury (*sigh*). Cholowski has been very productive to start — and probably their most impressive defenseman — being tied for the team lead with three points, while averaging over 22 minutes of ice time per game. However, the team gets an old workhorse back as Niklas Kronwall is expected to make his season debut tonight after battling a lower-body injury since the end of preseason. The Wings will also be without Trevor Daley (upper body), Jonathan Ericsson (upper body) and Mike Green (infection) for their matchup with the Leafs.

Projected Lines

Red Wings

Forwards

Justin Abdelkader — Dylan Larkin — Anthony Mantha
Gustav Nyquist — Andreas Athanasiou — Thomas Vanek
Tyler Bertuzzi — Frans Nielsen — Michael Rasmussen
Darren Helm — Christoffer Ehn — Luke Glendening

Defense

Danny DeKeyser — Filip Hronek
Libor Sulak — Joe Hicketts
Niklas Kronwall — Nick Jensen

Goalies

Jimmy Howard
Jonathan Bernier

Maple Leafs

Forwards

Patrick Marleau — Auston Matthews — Kasperi Kapanen
Zach Hyman — John Tavares — Mitch Marner
Par Lindholm — Nazem Kadri — Connor Brown
Josh Leivo — Frederik Gauthier — Tyler Ennis

Defense

Morgan Rielly — Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner — Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott — Igor Ozhiganov

Goalies

Frederik Andersen
Garret Sparks