The Detroit Red Wings are back at it tonight hoping to fend off the Sens

The Detroit Red Wings are back on the ice tonight taking on the Ottawa Senators.

In a very winnable game, the Detroit Red Wings look to forget their performance earlier in the week against the Washington Capitals.  The Caps torched the Wings in D.C on Tuesday night to the tune of 6-2 behind an Alex Ovechkin hat trick.

Jimmy Howard who came on in relief of Bernie after the first period is expected to get the nod tonight against the Sens.  It is the first of yet another back to back for the Detroit Red Wings who play in New York tomorrow night taking on the Islanders.

Howard has only started once in the last four games, an effort by the franchise to limit the 35-year-old netminders’ appearances and quite possibly making sure he is fresh enough for the Wings down the stretch.  The stretch meaning either for themselves (unlikely) or as a trade chip (most likely).

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Dylan Larkin has been scorching hot of late for the Detroit Red Wings.  The future captain is enjoying a five-game point streak, in which he has accumulated 8 points over his last five games. He has 30 points in the first 32 games of the season.  Larkin is regularly the Wings best skater, he has flourished this season understanding the franchise, and its future is firmly on his shoulders.

One of the impressive revelations in Larks’ game this season has been his success in the faceoff circle.  He is currently operating at a 55.4% success rate.  An area he needed to improve on greatly, in fact prior to this season he had never been over 50%.

Athanasiou is coming off of an 18 plus minute performance in Washington; he needs to step his game up and work on being much more consistent.  He has had an excellent season thus far being able to notch 11 goals and has the potential to flirt with achieving 30 on the season.  He has 4 points over his last 8 games.

Since the Mantha injury, Nyquist has been bumped up to the top line, which has hurt the scoring ability of the second line.  Vanek has yet to wake up and smell the coffee; he could provide assistance to AA and Neilsen if he can get the piano off his back and start producing.

Speaking of Gus, he’s been the top performing Detroit Red Wings forward of late.  While similar to Larks, Gus has 8 points over his last five contests; his streak stretches a bit further back as he has 13 points over his previous eight games.

The Sens have a considerable amount of injuries.  Matt Duchene is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury.  Jean-Gabriel Pageau is on IR with a torn Achilles.  Defenseman Dylan DeMelo is also on IR with an undisclosed injury.  Marian Gaborik and Clarke MacArthur are also unavailable for Ottawa.

What the Sens do have though is Mark Stone.  The veteran winger is off to a tremendous start this season.  He has 15 goals and 35 points in his first 32 games of the season.  He is also a plus 10 on the below .500 Ottawa Senators.

The Sens are also expected to get veteran forward Bobby Ryan back tonight.  He has been sidelined the past three games with a concussion.  The 31-year-old isn’t quite what he once was, but he has managed to claim 18 points in his 29 appearances this season.

Notes: Mike Green and Jonathan Ericsson both missed Thursday’s practice.  Mike Green who is expected to be out 3-5 weeks is a devastating blow; he has been terrific for the Wings this season.  Filip Hronek has been recalled from the Grand Rapids Griffins, and Brian Lashoff is returned for the time being.

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) – Dennis Cholowski

Jonathan Ericsson (or) Luke Witkowski – Nick Jensen

Trevor Daley – Filip Hronek

Jimmy Howard

Jonathan Bernier

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

Game Information:

Detroit Red Wings 14-14-4 vs. Ottawa Senators 13-15-4
Time: 7:30 EST
Location: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, MI
TV:  Fox Sports Detroit, RSN, TSN5, Fox Sports Go, NHL.TV, ESPN+
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
OddsShark Odds- Fav. Wings -140
Head to Head last 10- Wings 6-3-0-1