The Detroit Red Wings look for back to back wins in Columbus
By Bob Heyrman
The Detroit Red Wings are coming off of a beautiful home win against the Dallas Stars and will look to get a little momentum rolling as they head to Columbus tonight.
The Columbus Blue Jackets are set to host our Detroit Red Wings tonight. The Wings are coming off of their best game of the season early Sunday evening and will look to keep the train rolling. The train has been derailed the majority of the season, but it would be nice to see the Wings play another complete game and find some positive vibes.
The Detroit Red Wings will have to do it without a couple of their better forwards. Andreas Athanasiou is day to day and unexpected to play tonight in the land of Blue. Frans Nielsen has already been ruled out tonight and Thursday against the Devils.
Michael Rasmussen will be asked to play down the middle tonight, and it may just get him going offensively. He has struggled to find his way through his first nine career NHL games. He has been a natural center his whole life, Detroit has moved him to the wing similar to what they chose to do early on in Dylan Larkin‘s career. It protects young players and limits their defensive responsibilities.
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The Wings can also run Darren Helm down the middle if they would like. Helm has played a tonne of center in his career and is reliable in the faceoff circle. To start the night though they will leave Helm on the Wing with Larkin and Mantha as his linemates.
Unfortunately, we are in for a heavy dose of Luke Glendening tonight. Jeff Blashill will be using the bottom six forward as his second line center tonight with all of the injuries. Glendening will be up around 17-18 minutes tonight I suspect.
Michael Rasmussen will be buried with Frk and Witkowski on the fourth line. Only Jeff Blashill finds a way to take two of his fourth line players and play them on the power play and then return them to the bottom of the lineup during 5 on 5 play. Think about that for a second. For the record, I would absolutely flip de La Rose and Rasmussen in this lineup.
The Detroit Red Wings projected lineup;
Darren Helm – Dylan Larkin – Anthony Mantha
Gustav Nyquist – Jacob de La Rose – Thomas Vanek
Justin Abdelkader – Luke Glendening – Tyler Bertuzzi
Luke Witkowski – Michael Rasmussen – Martin Frk
Trevor Daley – Jonathan Ericsson
Injuries; Danny DeKeyser (hand), Andreas Athanasiou (undisclosed), Frans Nielsen (undisclosed), Evgeny Svechnikov (knee).
Healthy Scratches; Joe Hicketts
Next. Potential 30 Goal achievers for the Detroit Red Wings. dark
Game Information:
- Detroit Red Wings 2-7-2 vs. Columbus Blue Jackets 6-4-0
- Time: 7:00 EST
- Location: Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
- TV: Fox Sports Detroit Plus, Fox Sports Go, NHL.TV
- Radio: 97.1 The Ticket