7:30p ET, Little Caesars Arena
TV: FS-D, FS-F
Radio: WXYT-FM 97.1
Panthers Blog: Litter Box Cats
Don’t look now, but the Red Wings have put together a three-game winning streak. Happy that the team is racking up points? Thumbs up! Vaguely annoyed because they’re ruining their chances at Rasmus Dahlin? I won’t call the fan police on you! Conflicted because you feel both at the same time but aren’t really sure how much this all really matters because sports are just a temporary escape from the inevitability of death? You do you, boo!
Other inevitable things: trusting the process, Buffalo in the basement of the Atlantic, and Vincent Trocheck’s Michigan ties being mentioned 54879 times in a Red Wings-Panthers game. So be prepared.
Florida will be a little more well-prepared tonight, as their game in Boston yesterday was postponed due to severe weather. I don’t know if I’d rather have a tired Panthers team coming in or this scenario, because an unexpected day off before a game didn’t work out too well for the Wings last season.
On one hand, Florida has been on a roll lately, with their loss to the Wild on Tuesday snapping a five-game winning streak of their own. On the other hand, none of those five games were against opponents to write home about. On the other other hand, there’s something to be said about streaks and confidence building and process trusting and oh god I’m turning into Jeff Blashill help
Red Wings Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Gustav Nyquist | Henrik Zetterberg | Tyler Bertuzzi |
| Tomas Tatar | Dylan Larkin | Andreas Athanasiou |
| Darren Helm | Frans Nielsen | Justin Abdelkader |
| Martin Frk | Anthony Mantha |
Defensemen
| Jonathan Ericsson | Trevor Daley |
| Danny DeKeyser | Mike Green |
| Niklas Kronwall | Nick Jensen |
| Xavier Ouellet |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Petr Mrazek |
Injuries: Luke Glendening (hand/wrist, out 3-4 weeks)
Scratches: David Booth, Luke Witkowski
Panthers Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Jonathan Huberdeau | Aleksander Barkov | Nick Bjugstad |
| Evgenii Dadonov | Vincent Trocheck | Denis Malgin |
| Jamie McGinn | Jared McCann | Connor Brickley |
| Michael Haley | Derek MacKenzie | Colton Sceviour |
Defensemen
| Keith Yandle | Aaron Ekblad |
| Mike Matheson | Mark Pysyk |
| MacKenzie Weegar | Alex Petrovic |
Goaltenders
| James Reimer (starting) |
| Harri Sateri |
Injuries: Roberto Luongo (lower-body), Radim Vrbata (illness)
Scratches: Ian McCoshen, Maxim Mamin
| PANTHERS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 17-17-5 (39 pts; 4th in Atlantic) | Record | 16-16-7 (39 pts; 5th in Atlantic) |
| 2.74 (21st in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.64 (27th in NHL) |
| 3.18 (25th) | Goals Against Per Game | 3.05 (22nd) |
| 15.6% (27th) | Power Play % | 20.0% (13th) |
| 81.3% (13th) | Penalty Kill % | 81.1% (15th) |
| Vincent Trocheck (15 goals) | Goals Leader | Anthony Mantha (13 goals) |
| Trocheck, Huberdeau (37 points) | Points Leader | Dylan Larkin (33 points) |
Game Day Prediction Contest
Would you like to predict the outcome of the game and potentially become internet famous? Well you’re in luck, because here’s your opportunity. Here’s how it works.
First off, if you don’t have an SBN Username, make one! We’d love to have you, plus it’s much easier to track your predictions season-long. Then make your guess on the winning team, final score, and who the Red Wings player of the game will be. Enter the required information into the form below using the formats indicated. If you don’t use those formats, your answers will be disregarded. All submissions are timestamped and will be accepted only until the official game start time. Only one submission per person, please. The Red Wings POTG will be determined by the collective of WiiM writers.
Each correct winning team prediction is worth 1 point. Each correct player of the game prediction is worth 3 points. Each correct final score prediction is worth 5 points. If you get all three correct, you’ll receive 15 points.
Good luck!
