Detroit Red Wings look to make it Four Straight Wins Tonight
By Bob Heyrman
The Detroit Red Wings have been playing exceptionally well of late and will try to keep things rolling tonight at home against the Edmonton Oilers.
The Detroit Red Wings lead the series over the last ten meetings. The Wings are 6-4-0 in the previous ten games against the Oilers. During the last ten meetings, the Wings have held the Oilers goal scoring average to nearly 2 goals a game.
The Detroit Red Wings are coming off a victory against the New Jersey Devils where they scored twice on the power-play and twice short-handed. The Wings power-play has been fantastic to this point in the season. They are ranked 9th on the PP in the league. They are converting 26.2% of the time. The PK has been as good. They are 9th in the league as well at 80.8%.
If the Detroit Red Wings could figure out some things five on five, they would be surprisingly better than expected. Their play at even strength at times has been horrible. They give up too many goals and don’t score enough while playing at even strength. The special teams are outstanding but they rank 27th in the league playing even. The Wings have struggled all season keeping sustained pressure in the offensive zone. They did a much better job of that Thursday night against NJ. Look for the group to feel encouraged and continue to hound the puck in Edmonton’s zone tonight.
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The Wings have been great in the faceoff circle this season. Night in and night out the Wings are winning more faceoffs than they are losing. It is always much better to start with the puck on your stick rather than chasing from the get-go.
The Oilers come into Detroit with a 7-4-1 record and coming off a shutout win (4-0) in Chicago Thursday night. Back up goaltender Mikko Koskinen made 40 saves and has earned himself back to back starts. He has been great in his only two starts of the season, winning both starts and posting video game numbers in a small sample size. A 955% save percentage and 1.51 goals against average. A weird fact — Koskinen wears number 19 as a goaltender. Can’t say that I’ve ever seen that before, have you?
The Detroit Red Wings projected lineup;
Darren Helm – Dylan Larkin (A) – Anthony Mantha
Gustav Nyquist – Jacob de La Rose – Michael Rasmussen
Justin Abdelkader (A) – Luke Glendening – Tyler Bertuzzi
Luke Witkowski – Wade Megan – Martin Frk
Niklas Kronwall (A) – Nick Jensen
Injury Notes: We won’t have to worry about the Oilers speeding around Jonathan Ericsson tonight because he has been sidelined again with a minor injury. Frans Nielsen would have been a good option to play head to head with McDavid, although he is close to returning he won’t be ready to go tonight. Andreas Athanasiou will be out until sometime next week, and Vanek is out 2-4 weeks.
Next. Roundtable Discussion of Jeff Blashill. dark
Game Information:
- Detroit Red Wings 4-7-2 vs. Edmonton Oilers 7-4-1
- Time: 7:00 EST
- Location: Little Ceasars Arena, Detroit, Michigan
- TV: Fox Sports Detroit, Sportsnet, Fox Sports Go, NHL.TV
- Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
- OddsShark Odds- Edm -145