Fansided

The Detroit Red Wings look to split road games in D.C

By Bob Heyrman |
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 09: Washington Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen (2) skates against Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jonathan Ericsson (52) in the second period on February 9, 2017, at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. The Washington Capitals defeated the Detroit Red Wings, 6-3. (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 09: Washington Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen (2) skates against Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jonathan Ericsson (52) in the second period on February 9, 2017, at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. The Washington Capitals defeated the Detroit Red Wings, 6-3. (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The Detroit Red Wings have benefitted from playing a stretch of top-tier teams of late, but are they ready to beat the defending Stanley Cup Champions?

Besides the game last night against the struggling L.A Kings the Detroit Red Wings have played a stretch of quality opponents.  They let a 5-3 lead slip away at home only to lose to the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-5 in a shootout.  Then they traveled to Toronto and bested the high flying Maple Leafs in overtime.  They dropped a winnable game to a quality opponent at home to the NY Islanders 3-2.

After being heavily outshot and behind a Jimmy Howard 42 save effort the Detroit Red Wings slipped past a struggling Kings team at home last night.  The final was 3-1 Wings.  The Detroit Red Wings have a tough test tonight with the Washington Capitals not having a game last night and winning their last two contests.

The first meeting between two in D.C the Wings were clipped by the Caps 3-1.  The Wings played well but struggled to handle the defending champs.  This is a Detroit Red Wings team that is playing much better of late.  It will be an excellent test for this group to gauge where they are at once again.

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The Caps currently have a couple of critical injuries.  Pest, cheap-shot taker, whatever you want to call him Tom Wilson is day-to-day with a concussion. T.J Oshie is currently on IR also with a concussion.  Rugged veteran defender Brooks Orpik is on IR with a lower-body injury.

What they Caps do have is Alex the great, Kutznetzov, Backstrom, Carlson, Holtby, the list goes on and on.  The Caps have a lethal power play that converts at a clip of 25% of the time.  That ranks as 7th in the NHL.  The Detroit Red Wings take over 10 penalty minutes a night which is one of the highest in the league.

That matchup does not play well for the Wings, although that being said the Wings PK on the road is 90%, ranking them second overall in the league on the road.  They do not kill penalties well at home yet, but when you group that terrific road rating with a poor home performance, they rank 15th in the league at 79%.

The Wings cannot take foolish penalties against the Caps, more times than not they will be fishing the puck out of the back of their net.  The Detroit Red Wings PP unit at one time was a top-ten unit in the NHL, they’ve struggled of late with the sting of injuries to the team.  They now rank 20th in the NHL only converting on 18% of their PP opportunities.

The Caps PK is not that good; it is a matchup the Detroit Red Wings will need to take advantage of to have a chance of knocking off the defending champs.  The Caps PK is only running at 77.6%, which is 22nd in the NHL.

Dylan Larkin has a four-game point streak going for him, Frans Nielsen has been rolling of late, and Gustav Nyquist has been on fire.  The Wings will need these three to remain hot and could use a boost from both, Thomas Vanek and double-A.

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

Jonathan Bernier

Jimmy Howard

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

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Game Information:

Detroit Red Wings 14-13-4 vs. Washington Capitals 17-9-3
Time: 7:30 EST
Location: Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C
TV:  NBC Sports, Fox Sports Go, NHL.TV, ESPN+
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
OddsShark Odds- Fav. Caps -270
Head to Head last 10- Caps 7-1-1-1

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