The Detroit Red Wings Conclude Road Trip in Florida Tonight

The Detroit Red Wings roll into Florida tonight to take on the Panthers. The team will look to finally get into the win column before returning home.

It has been anything but easy this season for the Detroit Red Wings who have yet to find their stride. The Wings have started the season 0-5-2. The Wings lost close, competitive games to start the season only to see themselves get blown out a couple of times.

The Wings bounced back and played a solid game verse the superior Tampa Bay Lightning only to fall short 3-1 Thursday night. Tampa did hit an empty net; the game was tightly contested with a lot of scoring chances. Both goaltenders stood tall.

Jeff Blashill and company tried to even out their lines. The way the scorecard read was Anthony Mantha and Thomas Vanek on the fourth line, both flanking Christoffer Ehn. Ehn would find himself used sparingly as Blashill rolled three centers between four sets of wingers.

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Anthony Mantha only recorded just over 13 minutes of ice-time which is inexcusable. Thomas Vanek did not even reach 13 minutes of time. The pair skated like third line wingers. Vanek on a good team would be suited as such, Mantha should be playing 17 a night on this team. Three consecutive games Anthony Mantha has not reached 15 minutes of ice-time.

If Jeff Blashill and the Detroit Red Wings want to end this seven-game losing skid to start the season, they need to lean on their better players rather than trying to roll four lines playing much too conservative.

The Florida Panthers are coming off their first win of the season last night in Washington. They jumped out to a large lead, chasing Brayden Holtby, only to see the defending Stanley Cup champs chip away and end up tying the contest with under two minutes to go in regulation.

They would skate to a draw after the overtime period, leading to a shootout. The Panthers would end up victorious with a final score of 6-5.

Bob Boughner and the Florida Panthers have struggled to get much going to start the season. They are projected to be a playoff team that has the potential to make some noise in the playoffs. They lost netminder Roberto Luongo in the first game of the season and have been forced to roll James Reimer and Michael Hutchinson in net. Both capable of collecting wins but both best served as backup goalies.

The Detroit Red Wings projected lineup;

Darren Helm – Dylan Larkin (A) – Gustav Nyquist

Tyler Bertuzzi – Frans Nielsen (A) – Andreas Athanasiou

Justin Abdelkader (A) – Luke Glendening – Michael Rasmussen

Anthony Mantha – Christoffer Ehn – Thomas Vanek

Dennis Cholowski – Trevor Daley

Joe Hicketts – Jonathan Ericsson

Niklas Kronwall (A) – Nick Jensen

Jimmy Howard

Jonathan Bernier

Healthy Scratches: Luke Witkowski, Filip Hronek, Martin Frk

Injuries: Evgeny Svechnikov (Knee), Mike Green ( Virus) Danny DeKeyser (Hand)