Detroit Red Wings: Jimmy Howard returns to the cage vs Kings

Goaltender Jimmy Howard makes his return in between the pipes as the Detroit Red Wings host the L.A Kings tonight.

It was sort of a head-scratching couple of games for the Detroit Red Wings regarding their goaltending choices. Jonathan Bernier had gotten the call for the last two straight starts, one of which was against the high flying Toronto Maple Leafs. He bested to Leafs and fell at home against the Islanders but performed well enough to give the Wings a chance to win. Anyhow Jimmy Howard gets the nod tonight for Detroit.

The Kings cruise into the Motor City in the midst of a very underachieving season. General Manager and former King Rob Blake didn’t wait long to fire head coach John Stevens in favor of Willie Desjardins. Willie hasn’t made a friend with newly signed free agent Ilya Kovalchuk.

Kovy was leading the Kings in scoring at the time of his demotion to the fourth line, often playing a mere 6-7 minutes a night. Since then Anze Kopitar has taken over the team with a leading 18 points. Stand-out defender Drew Doughty is second on the club with 17.

More from Octopus Thrower

Kovalchuk has been exceptionally cold since he was the team leader with 14 points. He had gone scoreless in his last 11 games before being injured. He has yet to play a game in the month of December after being placed on IR with an ankle injury.

In fact, the Kings have a lot of players who are currently injured, top pairing defender Alec Martinez is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Big power forward Kyle Clifford is also day to day with an upper-body injury also. Trevor Lewis is out indefinitely with a broken foot, Carl Hagelin who was acquired early this season from the Pittsburgh Penguins in a deal that saw Tanner Pearson looking at the Pitt real estate ads.

The move made little sense to me, and it seemed like a desperation move by Blake to shake things up and send a message to his team. Hagelin a decent fourth line player, but Pearson is a big body who can play with an edge and also has proven to be able to chip in with some offense.

The Detroit Red Wings will look to dethrone the Kings in the motor city tonight. Along with the return of Howie in between the cage, Trevor Daley is set to return after a five-game absence. A lower-body injury sent Daley to the shelf for a week but he is ready to rock again, and tough guy Luke Witkowski is expected to return to the press box for the time being.

Who’s hot; Gustav Nyquist has been on a tear for the Wings of late. He has 10 points in his last seven games bringing his season total to 27 in 30 games.

Larks leads the team with 28 points on the season. He has achieved 7 points over his last five games.

Mike Green anchors the Wings D-core. Greener has 7 points over the last seven games; he’s also played over 24 minutes in each of the previous three contests. Green has 16 points in 21 games this season; he’s also the owner of an impressive plus 10 rating.

The Detroit Red Wings projected lineup;

Justin Abdelkader (A) – Dylan Larkin (A) – Gustav Nyquist

Andreas Athanasiou – Frans Nielsen (A) – Thomas Vanek

Michael Rasmussen – Luke Glendening – Tyler Bertuzzi

Christoffer Ehn – Jacob de La Rose – Martin Frk

Niklas Kronwall (A) – Mike Green

Jonathan Ericsson – Nick Jensen

Dennis Cholowski – Trevor Daley

Jimmy Howard

Jonathan Bernier

Injures; Anthony Mantha ( Hand), Darren Helm ( Upper-body), Danny DeKeyser (hand), Evgeny Svechnikov (knee)

Next. Tough Guy: The Bob Probert story. dark

Game Information:

Detroit Red Wings 13-13-4 vs. Los Angeles Kings 11-18-1
Time: 7:30 EST
Location: Little Ceasars Arena, Detroit MI
TV: Fox Sports Detroit, Fox Sports Go, NHL.TV, ESPN+
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
OddsShark Odds- Fav. Detroit -120
Head to Head last 10- Kings 6-3-0-1

Home/Red Wings News