Detroit Red Wings: A battle of bottom feeding Original Six teams
By Bob Heyrman
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
Jonathan Ericsson – Trevor Daley
Next. Plans to demolish Joe Louis Arena Approved. dark
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