The Detroit Red Wings try their luck Coyote Hunting
By Bob Heyrman
The Arizona Coyotes are in town tonight as they will take on the Detroit Red Wings at Little Ceasars Arena.
The Detroit Red Wings will look to stay hot tonight against the Arizona Coyotes. For the record I initially just typed Phenoix. A trip down memory lane; The days of Tony Amonte, (JR) Jeremy Roenick and Keith Tkachuk are long gone. Yes, Amonte had a cup of coffee in a Coyote jersey. I remember Teppo Numminen, and Sean Burke dawning the howling Coyote on the front of their jersey as well. Oh, and I can’t forget the greatest player in franchise history, the ultimate leader, Shane Doan.
It is indeed a different group of players these days, but Arizona still has a few players to keep an eye on. Oliver Ekman-Larsson is an absolute stud on the back end. He is one of the best defensemen in the league. To sum everything up, he is good at everything. OEL, can skate with the best of them, he has terrific offensively and well above average in his own zone. He has 11 points in his first 16 games of the season which is good for second on the team and is a plus 4. He’s also averaging just a hair under 24 minutes a night.
Clayton Keller leads the Coyotes with 5 goals and 12 points. Alex Galchenyuk has been fantastic in his 9 appearances recording 8 points. The Wings get the luxury of missing Antti Raanta in goal; he is sidelined with an injury. Darcy Kuemper will be in net tonight for Zona. Niklas Hjalmarsson paces the top penalty killing unit in the entire NHL.
Hjalmarsson doesn’t contribute much offensively but he is a fantastic defender and one of the top shot blockers year after year in the league. The Detroit Red Wings are paced by solid special teams. They will need to find a way to solve the best PK in the business tonight to have a chance for a victory.
It is a special night tonight. It is “hockey fights cancer” There should be a lot of pink throughout the arena tonight. Also, the Wings have these fantastic jerseys pictured above along with Jimmy Howard’s awesome mask.
Who’s Hot;
Dylan Larkin is rolling for the Detroit Red Wings. He has 10 points over the last 7 games. It is no surprise that Larkin has been thriving of late with how good the Wings have played. It is only fitting that the Wings best player is leading them during this string of games which has seen the club win 6 of its last 7 games.
Gustav Nyquist is in the midst of a lengthy 7 game point streak that has seen him produce 8 points. Actually, Gus Nyquist has only failed to record a point in 5 total games thus far this season. He has 15 points in 17 games.
Andreas Athanasiou since returning from a lower-body injury has been flying around dangerously on the ice. He has been playing 3 minutes a night more this season than his career average, and it shows in the statistical columns. He has 10 points in 13 games, 6 of which are goals.
Frans Nielsen is slated to remain the second line center for the Detroit Red Wings. He is a nice compliment to Larkin. He’s a swiss army knife who can play on the PP and PK. He is a gifted enough skater to play three on three and is a wizard in the shootout. He scored the SO winner in Carolina Saturday night which was the 50th SO goal of his career.
The Detroit Red Wings projected lineup;
Darren Helm – Dylan Larkin – Anthony Mantha
Andreas Athanasiou – Frans Nielsen – Gustav Nyquist
Justin Abdelkader – Luke Glendening – Tyler Bertuzzi
Michael Rasmussen – Wade Megan – Martin Frk
Dennis Cholowski – Niklas Kronwall
Injuries; Jacob de La Rose (undisclosed), Jonathan Ericsson (undisclosed), Thomas Vanek (lower-body), Evgeny Svechnikov (knee)
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