I get the privilege, no, the pleasure, of doing game day updates on WiiM on all the obscure holidays. To those who celebrate it, happy Fat Tuesday! As soon as I’m done writing this I’m headed out to find a paczki. It’s been much more of a chore to find one since I moved away from Michigan. Sigh. The things you don’t realize you miss until they’re gone.

Only major update for today’s game is that Bertuzzi is in for David Booth, per Dana Wakiji:

#RedWings in morning skate:
Mantha-Zetterberg-Nyquist
Tatar-Larkin-Athanasiou
Helm-Nielsen-Abdelkader
Frk-Glendening-Bertuzzi

Ericsson-Daley
Kronwall-Green
DeKeyser-Jensen
Ouellet-Witkowski

— Dana Wakiji (@Dwakiji) February 13, 2018

No news from the Ducks on line up changes. They’re going with the same lines that LOST against the Sharks on Sunday. Definition of insanity? Obviously. And only mad men would wear those Anaheim jerseys. They’re a car wreck of colors. Now onto some delicious, jelly-filled keys to the game.

Three Paczkis to the Game

Get pucks deep. Get pucks on net. The old hockey mantra holds extra true against this season’s Ducks. They allow a lot of shots on net. Be fast, get traffic in front of the net, and make clean passes.

Neutralize Rickard Rakell. Despite the goal-scoring woes of Perry and Getzlaf, Rickard Rakell is having himself a very nice season. He is by far the best trigger-man on Anaheim’s top line, so limiting his chances will go a long way to silencing the Ducks’ offense.

Beware the Third Line. Anaheim’s third line of Adam Henrique, Nick Ritchie, and Ondrej Kase has put up very respectable numbers in their time on ice this season. Blashill will need to match lines carefully this game out of respect for Anaheim’s third forward group.