Game Day Updates
Roope Hintz is skating this morning. Strong chance he is in the lineup tonight
— Bruce LeVine (@BruceLeVinePuck) April 19, 2021
Anton Khudobin will start tonight against the Red Wings. #GoStars
— Brien Rea (@BrienRea) April 19, 2021
#RedWings Blashill said Fabbri remains out for tonight’s game in Dallas (7:30, NBCSN). Svechnikov expected to return tonight. Few players with bumps and bruises to be determined at game time. Veleno (taxi squad) on trip but won’t play in the two games in Dallas.
— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) April 19, 2021
Lineups
Detroit
Forwards
Jakub Vrana – Dylan Larkin – Filip Zadina
Richard Panik – Michael Rasmussen – Valtteri Filppula
Frans Nielsen/Evgeny Svechnikov – Vladislav Namestnikov – Sam Gagner
Darren Helm – Luke Glendening – Adam Erne
Defense
Dennis Cholowski – Filip Hronek
Marc Staal – Troy Stetcher
Danny DeKeyser – Gustav Lindstrom
Goalies
Thomas Greiss
Jonathan Bernier
Dallas
Forwards
Jason Robertson – Roope Hintz – Joe Pavelski
Jason Dickinson – Jamie Benn – Denis Gurianov
Andrew Cogliano – Radek Faksa – Blake Comeau
Rhett Gardner – Justin Dowling – Tanner Kero
Defense
Esa Lindell – John Klingberg
Jamie Oleksiak – Miro Heiskanen
Andrej Sekera – Sami Vatanen
Goalies
Anton Khudobin
Jake Oettinger
Keys to the Game
1. Make the Powerplay Look Serviceable
The Wings powerplay is 2-for-22 through the month of April. It has been a rough go for most of the season on the man advantage. But it has been particularly abysmal as of late. That was highlighted by the 5-on-3 advantage for over 1:00 in the 3rd period against Chicago on Saturday. The Wings struggled to even enter the zone without dumping it in. It’s one thing for a powerplay to run cold, it’s another to look completely lost. It’d be nice to get a powerplay goal or two tonight, but fans will settle for an NHL-looking powerplay to start with.
2. Be Prepared For A Hungry Team
Dallas has battled all year, beginning with a fight against Covid, and injuries along the way have made it a struggle for last year’s Cup Finalist. But they still have a good opportunity at a playoff spot. They should shoot past the floundering Blackhawks. They have their eyes set on Nashville, hoping to leapfrog the Preds with their games in hand. Detroit is likely going to face a Stars team that will be firing on all cylinders through this 4 game series. They need to prepared to offer their best performance to stay in these games. The silver lining to this is it offers Detroit the chance to play spoiler. If the Wings can win this series, or even battle it out to a 2-2 draw, they will put the Stars in a tough spot to grab the last Central playoff spot.
3. Earn Your Job
With the trade deadline come and gone, there are still a handful of pending UFAs and more RFAs. Many will likely not even be offered new contracts with the team. But they all have plenty to play for down the stretch. Other teams are watching and this is their last chance to make an impression on Yzerman or other GM’s and scouts to earn a contract offer to play next season or improve their market. Nobody’s about to feel sorry for millionaires but this is all these guys know and it’s a big deal to them to be able to keep on playing as long as they can. Expect to see these players on expiring deals give everything they have to these last few games. As a reminder this includes players like Vrana, Helm, Filppula, Glendening, Erne, Rasmussen, Svechnikov, Gagner, Bernier and all of the defense with the exception of DeKeyser and Stetcher.
