Preview: Red Wings return home to face Philadelphia

The Detroit Red Wings return home to face the struggling Phiadelphia Flyers tonight at Little Caesars Arena.  The Red Wings just finished a long and rather unsuccessful road trip where they went 1-3-0 over four games.  The Flyers are on a one game win streak and are 4-5-1 over the last 10 games.

Game time tonight is 7:30 PM ET at LCA in Detroit, MI.

Player Profile: Dylan Larkin/Tyler Bertuzzi

After a rather stressful couple of weeks of trade speculation, the Red Wings top two forwards remain teammates in Detroit.  Tyler Bertuzzi talked to the media before the Seattle game on Saturday and said that he didn’t ask for a trade and wanted to remain with the Red Wings.  Dylan Larkin always seems to be the target of speculation whenever the team hit a rough patch.

Both players made it through yesterday’s trade deadline as Red Wings and will begin their quest to try and salvage what has been a dreadful last two months of the NHL schedule for Detroit.

Detroit General Manager Steve Yzerman mentioned that he will be working on contract extensions with both players over the next 18 months.  Both players are set to become UFA’s at the end of the 2023 season.

Red Wings Notes

• Detroit are currently 5th in the Atlantic Division with a 25-30-7 record
• The Red Wings are currently 26th in PP (18.1%) and 30th in PK (74.0%)
• Dylan Larkin leads Detroit with 27 goals and 59 points in 57 games
• Moritz Seider leads the Red Wings with 37 assists in 62 games
• Seider leads all Detroit defensemen in scoring with 42 points
• Lucas Raymond remains 2nd in NHL rookie scoring with 47 points in 62 games
• Defenseman Marc Staal leads the Red Wings with a +9 rating
• Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic is expected to start and has a 16-19-6 record, 3.15 GAA, a .904 SV%, and two SO in 45 games
• Jake Walman and Oskar Sundqvist were acquired yesterday from St. Louis

Detroit Projected Lineup

Forwards

Tyler Bertuzzi – Dylan Larkin – Lucas Raymond

Jakub Vrana – Pius Suter – Filip Zadina

Adam Erne – Michael Rasmussen – Oskar Sundqvist

Givani Smith – Joe Veleno – Sam Gagner

Defensemen

Marc Staal – Moritz Seider

Jordan Oesterle – Filip Hronek

Jake Walman – Gustav Lindstrom

Goaltenders

Alex Nedeljkovic (starter)

Thomas Greiss

Scratched: Taro Hirose, Olli Juolevi

Injured: Robby Fabbri (lower body), Carter Rowney (lower body), Mitchell Stephens (lower body), Danny DeKeyser (upper body)

Flyers Notes

• Philadelphia are currently 7th in the Metropolitan Division with a 20-31-11 record
• The Flyers special teams are currently 30th in PP (13.8%) and 26th in PK (54.6%)
• Cam Atkinson leads Philadelphia with 23 goals and 47 points in 62 games
• Travis Konecny leads the Flyers with 28 assists in 60 games
• Travis Sanheim leads all Philadelphia defensemen in scoring with 23 points
• Atkinson leads all Flyers players with a +7 rating
• Carter Hart is expected to start and has a 13-19-7 record, 2.94 GAA, a .911 SV% and one SO in 40 games

Philadelphia Projected Lineup

Forwards

Joel Farabee – Kevin Hayes – Travis Konecny

Oskar Lindblom – Morgan Frost – Owen Tippett

James van Riemsdyk – Patrick Brown – Cam Atkinson

Nick Seeler – Maxwell Willman – Zack MacEwen

Defensemen

Ivan Provorov – Cam York

Travis Sanheim – Rasmus Ristlainen

Keith Yandle – Kevin Connauton

Goaltenders

Carter Hart (starting)

Martin Jones

Scratched: Hayden Hodgson

Injured:  Nate Thompson (shoulder),  Scott Laughton (concussion)