Time: 7:00 PM EST
Place: Prudential Center
TV: FS-Detroit
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket/1270 AM
Devils Blog: All About the Jersey
Detroit is back in action tonight after falling 5-4 to Columbus on Thursday. The Red Wings look to bounce back tonight on the first of back to back games this weekend. The team has cooled since going five consecutive games with at least a point, losing their last two in regulation, and four losses in a row. The skid has dropped the Red Wings to last place by a wider margin, not only trailing the rest of the league but doing so while having played more games.
Tyler Bertuzzi will look to pick up where he left off after scoring two against Columbus. He and the other two members of the top line, Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha will try to turn the tide for the team. Larkin in particular will look to spark something having gone pointless in his last three games. On the positive side, Fabbri has continued to look like a relative steal maintaining his torrid pace with 8 points in 7 games since joining the team. He’s helped get Andreas Athanasiou going who has 5 points in his last 3 games and 7 points overall since Fabbri’s arrival. The continued production of these two would go a long way towards getting this team out of the basement.
On the back end the Red Wings continue to wait on the return of several regulars. Danny DeKeyser is the most concerning with Blashill recently stating “there’s been no significant progress” and “we won’t have him back for the foreseeable future”. In the mean time, Joe Hicketts will look to capitalize on the opportunity the injuries on defense has presented him and try to stick with the big club after being bounced up and down of late. More notably, Filip Hronek has taken the reigns while others have been out, racking up a four game point streak and logging over 24 minutes in each of the last three games.
Jonathan Bernier is the presumed started for now given the five goals surrendered by Howard on Thursday. Another roster move to keep an eye on is the status of Taro Hirose who was a healthy scratch last game after returning to the lineup in the previous two games.
The Wings opponent tonight is the New Jersey Devils. The Devils sit 30th in the league just one point in front of the Red Wings. It’s been a rough go so far for a team with much loftier expectations after the moves they made in the off-season. The big news out of New Jersey recently was the demotion of goaltender Cory Schneider to the AHL on Tuesday. Schneider has faced an uphill climb in his battle back from injury. But if the team was hoping that would serve as a wake-up call to the rest of the roster they certainly haven’t shown it, losing 5-1 and 4-1 to Boston and Pittsburgh respectively. The Devils face a quick turnaround following the loss to the Penguins last night. As a result of the back to back games, Louis Domingue is expected to get his first career start as a Devil, filling in for MacKenzie Blackwood.
Tonight it’s a battle between two heavyweights for the bottom of the barrel, stay tuned!
