Game Day Updates
#RedWings Blashill indicated they are waiting on a few things before making final lineup decisions as it pertains to Cholowski and Erne. Cholowski skated in the optional but Erne did not.
— Dana Wakiji (@Dwakiji) October 22, 2019
More updates
Additionally, the Red Wings placed LW Adam Erne on injured reserve, retroactive to 10/18, and removed D Jonathan Ericsson from injured reserve.
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) October 22, 2019
The Ericsson news lines up with the news that he is on waivers.
No word yet if Svechnikov will draw into the lineup tonight.
Projected Lineups
Detroit Red Wings
Bertuzzi-Larkin-Mantha
Glendening-Filppula-Athanasiou
Hirose-Nielsen-Helm
Ehn-de la Rose-Abdelkader
DeKeyser-Hronek
Nemeth-Green
Bowey-Daley
Howard
Bernier
(These were from practice yesterday, and it sounds like Cholowski and Erne could be in tonight.)
Vancouver Canucks
Miller-Pettersson-Boeser
Pearson-Horvat-Virtanen
Ferland-Sutter-Leivo
Schaller-Beagle-Motte
Edler-Myers
Hughes-Tanev
Benn-Stecher
Markstrom
Demko
Key Matchups
1. Can someone scoring an F-ing goal?
I refuse to put any of this on Mantha, Bertuzzi or Larkin because they have combined for 25(!!!) of the teams 54 points this year, but can we get some offense from other players, please? Athanasiou, Filppula, Hirose and Nielsen have combined for 0 G and 5 A this year. That’s so bad. Someone needs to score in order to turn things around, and patience among the fans is running thin. If those four can’t register a goal tonight, it’s fair to expect another low scoring affair from Detroit.
2. Hronek/DDK vs. Canucks Top Line
While defense has been, uh, bad, this year for the Red Wings, Hronek and Dekeyser have provided brief glimpses of optimism while holding down the Red Wings top defensive pair. They’ll be tasked with shutting down the Canucks top line of Miller-Pettersson-Boeser, who have combined for 23 points in eight games thus far. Not only that, but they absolutely torched the Wings last week and combined for 3 G and 5 assists in the Canucks 5-1 win. Someone has to neutralize their top line, and it’s fair to assume Hronek and Dekeyser will be called upon to answer the task.
3. Face-offs!
That’s right, we’re going away from the norm here in this key matchup. Why? Because the Red Wings rank 5th worst in the NHL in face-offs at 45.6%, and the Canucks are 2nd best in the NHL at 54.6%. Face-offs are often overlooked as far as important parts of the game, but when the disparity between two teams is this large, it provides a substantial advantage. The Canucks PP was 3/5 last game vs. Detroit and think of how many offensive zone draws they had during those PP’s. It hurts your team when you consistently can’t win face-offs and it’s an area the Red Wings need to be sharp in tonight.
