Updates
On this day in 1972, @DetroitRedWings‘ Alex Delvecchio became the third player in NHL history to record 1,200 career points #Hockey365 #LGRW pic.twitter.com/tpSOGWF94m
— Mike Commito (@mikecommito) March 25, 2019
#RedWings Vanek out so Wings going 11 and 7. Mid-body injury.
— Dana Wakiji (@Dwakiji) March 25, 2019
Lineups
DETROIT
Darren Helm – Dylan Larkin – Anthony Mantha
Tyler Bertuzzi – Andreas Athanasiou – Luke Glendening
Matt Puempel – Frans Nielsen – Taro Hirose
Christoffer Ehn – Ryan Kuffner
Danny DeKeyser – Filip Hronek
Niklas Kronwall – Madison Bowey
Brian Lashoff – Luke Witkowski
Dylan McIlrath
Jimmy Howard
Jonathan Bernier
Sharks
Timo Meier – Tomas Hertl – Gustav Nyquist
Marcus Sorensen – Joe Thornton – Kevin Labanc
Evander Kane – Lukas Radil – Joonas Donskoi
Micheal Haley – Barclay Goodrow – Melker Karlsson
Joakim Ryan – Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Tim Heed
Brenden Dillon – Justin Braun
Aaron Dell
Martin Jones
Keys to the Game
Contain The Goose
I know Sara has a billion memes ready to tell us how “The Goose Is Loose,” but those are only fun when Nyquist was scoring for Detroit. Now that he is lining up against the Red Wings, the boys in red (well, white tonight, but you get the idea) will have to keep Nyquist in a pen. A fence? A very small enclosed pond? Not really sure how geese are contained.
In 12 games with San Jose, Nyquist has 3 goals and 3 assists, so he’s not exactly lighting up the stat sheet, but he’s now on the top line, and we all know how former players always seem to score against their former team, so….
Hirose Hot Streak
Taro Hirose has three assists in three games since signing with the Red Wings as a free agent. He has adapted more quickly to the NHL game than fellow free agent signing Ryan Kuffner, although three games is obviously far too small of a sample size to make any real evaluations of either.
In Wednesday’s edition of the power play update, I will highlight how even though he’s not doing anything flashy on the power play, he’s been a good addition to the man advantage. Can he get his first goal tonight? I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that he will.
Motivation
San Jose has clinched a playoff spot, and it looks likely they will finish second in the Pacific and play Vegas in the first round. Detroit is decidedly at the other end of the standings. Rather than spend a lot of time figuring out who has to win and who has to lose for Detroit to have the best chances at winning the lottery, I’m just hoping for exciting games from here on out, with young players getting a lot of opportunities. I mean the team that finished last overall has a 50.6% chance of dropping to fourth.
(As always, fan how you want to fan. Just my two cents.)
