Detroit Red Wings: A battle of bottom feeding Original Six teams

DETROIT, MI - NOVEMBER 09: Dylan Larkin #71 of the Detroit Red Wings battles for position with Neal Pionk #44 of the New York Rangers during an NHL game at Little Caesars Arena on November 9, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. The Wings defeated the Rangers 3-2 in overtime. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI - NOVEMBER 09: Dylan Larkin #71 of the Detroit Red Wings battles for position with Neal Pionk #44 of the New York Rangers during an NHL game at Little Caesars Arena on November 9, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. The Wings defeated the Rangers 3-2 in overtime. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)

The rich history is well known across the NHL community.  Whenever a pair of original six teams collide it’s always must see tv, well unless it’s the 2019 Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a Detroit Red Wings fan through and through and I still enjoy watching nearly every game they play.  But to say out of market NHL fans are going to tune into this original six match-up would be a stretch.

Both of these historic franchises are in what they hope is the midst of a rebuild.  Both teams were sellers at the trade deadline and both of the fans of each franchise, for the most part, wished they sold more.

The Detroit Red Wings have gone winless in their last eight games. The New York Rangers have a losing streak of their own going having lost five in a row.  Both clubs are trying to chase down the Ottawa Senators to better their odds of landing Jack Hughes.

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The Wings have done a better tank job so far to date.  The Rangers currently have 65 points on the season, the Wings sit at 56 and at this point the ability to reach 65 for them is in serious doubt.

The game against the Colorado Avalanche was an exciting game but the Wings fail to even “tank” the correct way.  They received a point because the game was decided in overtime.  The bright spot was when young forward Filip Zadina recorded his first NHL goal.

It was a power-play marker.  He hammered home a one-timed shot past the netminder and had a pretty solid celebration after the goal.  He had a permanent smile on his face after the goal, and rightly so.  I’m sure he was pressing some trying to get this first goal out of the way.  He did look much more comfortable Tuesday night. Let’s hope for an encore performance tonight.  I’d like to see him take a regular shift with Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha, just to see how the trio plays together.

Zadina was flying around using his speed and size to shield defenders and was using his sneaky quick release all night long.  He’s got a very heavy shot something similar to Auston Matthews.  That bodes well for the Detroit Red Wings.

The Detroit Red Wings projected lineup:

Tyler Bertuzzi – Dylan Larkin (A) – Anthony Mantha

Luke Glendening – Andreas Athanasiou – Filip Zadina

Darren Helm – Frans Nielsen (A) – Thomas Vanek

Justin Abdelkader (A) – Jacob de La Rose – Michael Rasmussen

Niklas Kronwall (A) – Madison Bowey

Danny DeKeyser – Filip Hronek

Jonathan Ericsson – Trevor Daley

The goaltending matchup: Jimmy Howard 17-18-5 with a 2.98 GAA/ 0.908 SV% | Henrik Lundqvist 17-17-9, 3.04 GAA/ 0.907 SV%

Location: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit MI

Time: 7:30 pm

How to watch: Fox Sports Detroit

Oddshark Odds: Wings -121