The Detroit Red Wings will host the Florida Panthers this afternoon in Motown. The Wings were able to snap a four-game skid Thursday night and will look to finish strong before taking a few days off for the holiday break.
The Panthers have been playing quite a bit better of late, certainly much better than they were the first time we played them. Since then the Panthers have gotten the services of Roberto Luongo back. The Detroit Red Wings will have the task this afternoon to try and solve the veteran netminder.
Lou hasn’t been himself yet; he is 7-6-1 on the season with a very suspect 3.00 GAA, and .900% Save percentage. James Reimer is the Panthers backup goaltender, and he Bobby Lou just got shelled by his former team and the team Detroit will face tomorrow, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Lou gave up 5 before the hook. The Panthers lost to them 6-1.
Jonathan Bernier has been in goal for the Wings for the majority of their games over the past couple of weeks. Jeff Blashill was clearly giving Howard a rest after he faced the Tampa Bay Lightning a couple of weeks ago. Jimmy Howard was expected to play in Philadelphia when his back tightened up, and he was unable to go in either of the last two.
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Bernier has been phenomenal especially making 38 stops in Carolina, 14 of which came in the first period. We expect Bernier to play against the Panthers and Howard to face the Leafs tomorrow.
The Detroit Red Wings have fallen into this trend, get peppered early and pray whoever is in net can weather the storm. Shot on goal don’t always tell the whole story, but when you are getting nearly doubled up every night, it says you are playing in the defensive zone way too often.
It would be nice to see this team come out strong and have some sustained pressure throughout the entire hockey game. The Detroit Red Wings all too often are “one and done” in the O-zone. The team needs to be stronger on the puck, stronger down low in the cycle game and create more scoring chances. At this point, I would love to see them start shooting from all over, fire it on goal and drive to the net looking for a rebound.
Dylan Larkin hit the empty net in Carolina, that extends his point streak to 9 games. He is on fire; he just needs some help. Besides Nyquist, its always mixed and matched every night. You can never count on who will show up any particular night. Athanasiou hasn’t scored in 11 games. Blashill should entertain putting AA up with Larkin to try and spark the speedster.
The Detroit Red Wings projected lineup;
Justin Abdelkader (A) – Dylan Larkin (A) –Gustav Nyquist
Luke Glendening – Frans Nielsen (A) – Tyler Bertuzzi
Thomas Vanek – Andreas Athanasiou – Michael Rasmussen
Christoffer Ehn – Jacob de La Rose – Martin Frk
Dennis Cholowski – Trevor Daley
Nicklas Kronwall (A) – Nick Jensen
Jonathan Ericsson – Filip Hronek
Jonathan Bernier
Jimmy Howard
Injures; Anthony Mantha ( Hand), Darren Helm ( Upper-body), Danny DeKeyser(hand), Evgeny Svechnikov (knee) Mike Green (lower-body)
Game Information:
Detroit Red Wings 15-16-5 vs. Florida Panthers 13-14-6
Time: 2:00 EST
Location: LCA, Detroit, MI
TV: Fox Sports Detroit, Fox Sports Go, NHL.TV, ESPN+
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
OddsShark Odds- Fav. Panthers -135