Updates:
The big question after last night is the status of Dylan Larkin. As of the time this article is posting, we don’t know if he’s playing tonight. We do know that he was making the trip, so it seems likely we won’t know until warmups, or even after that.
UPDATE: Dylan Larkin is out for 1-2 weeks.
On this day in 2011, Johan Franzen scored five goals in a game against the Senators. It was the first 5-goal performance from a @DetroitRedWings player in fifteen years #LGRW pic.twitter.com/95mROd6Xn0
— Mike Commito (@mikecommito) February 2, 2019
Michael Rasmussen, held scoreless tonight in San Antonio, will stay with Griffins for Wednesday’s home game, #RedWings AGM Ryan Martin told me. #Gogrg
— Pete Wallner (@petewallner) February 2, 2019
Guy Boucher says Anderson starts. Boedker is injured and wont play. Balcers will play. They will decide later today if they will play 6 or 7 D.
— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) February 2, 2019
Zack Smith: Has been fined $5,000.00 for elbowing Marcus Pettersson of the Pittsburgh Penguins. https://t.co/SjKH4k4pmV #nhl #HockeyTwitter #GoSensGo
— Left Wing Lock (@Left_Wing_Lock) February 2, 2019
Lineups
DETROIT
Justin Abdelkader – Dylan Larkin – Gustav Nyquist
Thomas Vanek – Frans Nielsen – Anthony Mantha
Andreas Athanasiou – Luke Glendening – Darren Helm
Christoffer Ehn – Jacob de la Rose – Martin Frk
Niklas Kronwall – Mike Green
Danny DeKeyser – Nick Jensen
Jonathan Ericsson – Dennis Cholowski
Jonathan Bernier
Jimmy Howard
OTTAWA
Ryan Dzingel – Matt Duchene – Bobby Ryan
Brady Tkachuk – Colin White – Mark Stone
Zack Smith – Jean-Gabriel Pageau – Magnus Paajarvi
Nick Paul – Chris Tierney – Rudolf Balcers
Thomas Chabot – Dylan DeMelo
Maxime Lajoie – Cody Ceci
Matt Borowiecki – Christian Jaros
Craig Anderson
Anders Nilsson
Keys to the Game
Play defense fast
I find that the Senators play very sluggishly most nights, so if Detroit can get the puck out of their zone and up the ice quickly, they should be able to find the lion’s share of the scoring chances.
Aggressive forechecking
With guys like Erik Karlsson missing, the Senators lack a veteran rearguard that they can lean on. Outside of their top-pairing, which lacks experience, it’s a thin defensive corps. If the Wings can get their fleet-footed guys forechecking aggressively, that could translate into some costly turnovers for the opposition.
Keep power-play unit going
This is self-explanatory. The Senators have Brady Tkachuk, who is an agitator. Keep cool, don’t get baited into penalties, and let the other team shoot themselves in the hot, then attack on special teams.
