Oilers vs. Red Wings — Game Day Updates, Lineups, Keys to the Game

Mike Bremer, Pete Flynn

• 2 min read Front Page

Game Day Updates

Updates:

Projected Lines

There wasn’t a morning skate today, so these are educated guesses. Adam Erne is a game-time decision.

Red Wings

Tyler Bertuzzi - Dylan Larkin - Darren Helm
Andreas Athanasiou - Valtteri Filppula - Anthony Mantha
Taro Hirose - Frans Nielsen - Adam Erne
Christoffer Ehn - Jacob de la Rose - Givani Smith

Joe Hicketts - Mike Green
Filip Hronek - Patrik Nemeth
Trevor Daley - Madison Bowey

Jimmy Howard
Jonathan Bernier

Oilers

Leon Draisaitl - Connor McDavid - Zack Kassian
Alex Chiasson - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - James Neal
Jujhar Khaira - Riley Sheahan - Patrick Russell
Tomas Jurco - Markus Granlund - Sam Gagner

Darnell Nurse - Ethan Bear
Oscar Klefbon - Kris Russell
Brandon Manning - Matt Benning

Mike Smith
Mikko Koskinen

Three Keys to the Game

  1. The Penalty Kill has to be better. Sunday’s game against St. Louis should have been an uplifting win for the Wings, but the penalty kill gave up two goals because the Blues put the Wings in a spin cycle. Edmonton has a better power play than St. Louis; Detroit cannot give up two goals on the power play again.
  2. Athanasiou and Hirose need to get in the goals column. Blashill knows Athanasiou needs to start producing, but the roster just isn’t very deep beyond the Mantha-Larkin-Bertuzzi line. When you’ve got four good forwards on your team, one of them is likely the odd man out. And Hirose is another guy who should provide some secondary scoring. He had a good game on Sunday. He needs to reward himself for that effort tonight.
  3. Just play. There is a lot of noise about the losing streak, with tempers flaring and a line of folks demanding answers that runs out the door and around the block. The Wings came out jittery last time; don’t squeeze the sticks too tight. Just play. The process was, for the most part, very good on Sunday, once the Wings got settled. So just play some good hockey.