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Morning Skate: Red Wings at Penguins, Preview and How to Watch

A gritty showdown is slated for tonight as Larkin on the Red Wings tackle the red-hot Penguins in Pittsburgh.

By Mike Bremer
Pittsburgh Penguins v Detroit Red Wings Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

When: 7:00 PM Eastern
Where: PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh, PA
TV: FSDT, ATTP
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket // 1270 AM
Pittsburgh Blog: Pensburgh

The Red Wings went into the Christmas mini-break with an absolute steal of a win against the Hurricanes and a collapse against the Leafs. Larkin’s point streak has marched on, however, so even in the ups and down of the rebuild there are some bright spots. Which is nice because it lets us know that we are not at rock bottom like the Sabres were a half-decade ago.

But Larkin hasn’t been the only one showing some moves. Nyquist continues to play well, causing some of the more long-term thinkers to salivate at the potential return for him at the deadline. Despite the occasional bad night here or there, the goal tandem has been good. Cholowski has been fun to watch, even as he’s been going through some growing pains lately, and Rasmussen has taken some good steps forward. It’s not as gloomy as it could be for the Red Wings faithful.

But tonight they march into Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins, led by you-know-who and that-other-guy. After a slow start to the year, the Penguins have gotten hotter, winning seven of their last ten, including their last three. In that stretch Crosby has five points and they’ve only let in two goals, and in front of the home crowd around this time of year, expect the Wings to have a tough match up ahead of them.

However, everybody’s gotta lose sometime, so tonight may as well be the night to end Pittsburgh’s little winning streak. No significant news about the Wings getting anyone back, but this is a team that is going to get excited to play against a very good Pittsburgh squad. They don’t seem them that often, so it’s not like playing against them is routine in the way playing against the Leafs has been lately, but also it’s not against a squad like the Hurricanes that just lacks some bones to it (no offense to Carolina, but we’ve got bigger fish to fry than each other.) This one should prove to be a good one.