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Updates
Not a whole lot new from this morning, except in goal for the Kings:
From our understanding, Quick's injury occurred during yesterday's practice. Campbell left the ice first and is projected to start. Expect a recall from Ontario. That, but in blog form: https://t.co/kVJjKuxWvv
— Jon Rosen (@lakingsinsider) October 7, 2018
That means the Wings will see Jack Campbell tonight rather than Jonathan Quick. He has only played a handful of NHL games, so this may be an opportunity for the Wings to exploit.
As far as the Wings’ lineup goes, we have this from Dana Wakiji yesterday:
#RedWings in practice:
— Dana Wakiji (@Dwakiji) October 6, 2018
Nyquist-Larkin-Mantha
Abdelkader-Athanasiou-Vanek
Bertuzzi-Nielsen-Rasmussen
Glendening-Ehn-Helm
Cholowski-Daley
DeKeyser-Hronek
Sulak-Jensen
Hicketts-Witkowski
First things first, we all gotta get irrationally enraged at Hicketts outside of the top 6 on D. Get it out of our system? Okay. Good. Because there probably isn’t anything to read into this other than rotating auditions and getting Nick Jensen some game time, because he really doesn’t deserve to be benched for any prolonged period of time. Detroit has to find out what assets it has, and this is just part of that process.
And as for the forwards, this goes out the window if the Wings can’t get any traction, so take it with a grain of salt as well.
UPDATE: Bernier will get the start tonight.
Notes: Bernier to start against former team; The Kings will be without Quick, who was injured in practice Saturday: https://t.co/M4MNwheZof pic.twitter.com/TtNNXi82Gv
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) October 7, 2018
Three Keys to the Game
Stay out of the penalty box. A big reason Detroit couldn’t build momentum last game against Columbus was because they were killing off so many penalties. Granted, some of those calls against Detroit were pretty soft, but don’t give them any reason to send you to the box. Discipline is always especially important against the Kings because they have so many big bodies and can smother you with their forecheck.
Make clean passes and buzz the tower. LA is not an especially fast team, nor do they try to be. If Detroit can make good, clean passes so their forwards can use their speed to break LA’s forecheck, they should find themselves in some good scoring opportunities. LA can’t hang with Detroit’s speed, but the passes need to set up that speed in the first place.
Exploit Jack Campbell. I hate to suggest beating up on the new guy/underdog, but Detroit needs to welcome Jack Cambell into the league with some goals against, preferably early. Get under his skin with some strong shots and an early goal to set the tempo for the game, that this one is really going to hurt if LA wants to win it.