Time: 7:00 PM EST
Place: Little Caesars Arena
TV: BSDET+
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket
Canadiens Blog: Eyes On The Prize
Tonight the Red Wings take on the Montreal Canadiens in what will already be the third game between these squads this season. Montreal has taken the first two games of the season series, by scores of 6-1 and 3-0 respectively. The Red Wings are hoping to flip the script this time.
The Red Wings will need to bounce back after a tough outing against the Washington Capitals on Thursday in which they allowed Zach Fucale to post a shutout in his first NHL game. Despite being down 2-0 after the first period, the Wings only managed 10 shots the rest of the game. If they want a better result they’ll need a better effort tonight.
One difference in this one from the previous matchups with the Habs will be that this one is played in Detroit. That means the Wings will have Tyler Bertuzzi available. Detroit is a team heavily carried by their top line offensively and need them all at their best to be the better team on any given night.
Outside of the usual suspects in Larkin, Bertuzzi, Raymond, and Seider; Filip Zadina should have some extra motivation against the Canadiens. Montreal are one of the teams that passed him up in the 2018 NHL draft whom he threatened to fill their net with pucks. Zadina has again played pretty well this season but can’t seem to find the back of the net. Perhaps tonight his luck takes a turn and he offers some secondary scoring for this lineup.
Detroit’s lineup looks to be mostly the same as it was on Thursday. Troy Stecher will apparently be out for a couple of weeks, or longer, while he deals with an unspecified injury. That leaves the only possible shakeups to the lineup being the insertion of either Oesterle or Rowney.
Where the Red Wings had a 3-game winning streak snapped on Thursday, the Habs broke a 3-game losing streak by beating the Flames 4-2. One player to look out for from Montreal is Nick Suzuki. After a slow start to the season he has now taken off with 14 points through 15 games, including multi-point performances in 4 of his last 5 games. Unfortunately for Montreal he hasn’t had many teammates break out in big ways yet. Other than Tyler Toffoli, no other Habs player has more than 7 points this season.
The expected goaltenders for tonight’s duel are Nedeljkovic for Detroit following Greiss’ start on Thursday, and Jake Allen for Montreal who has carried the load early in the season for the Habs while Carey Price works his way back from improving his mental health.
The Red Wings have had problems with allowing losses to string together a little bit this season. Can they quickly get back in the W column against a Habs team that has proven troublesome so far?
