Game 21
Buffalo Sabres (8-10-2) vs. Detroit Red Wings (9-9-3)
Puck Drop: 7:00 PM EST | Little Caesars Arena | Detroit, MI
TV: MSG
Radio: WGR 550
SB Nation Red Wings Blog: Winging It In Motown
Know Your Opponent
Detroit Red Wings
Record: 9-9-3 | 21 PTS
Division Ranking: 4th in the Atlantic Division
PP: 24th (15.8%)
PK: 24th (78.1%)
What to Watch
1. Can’t Stop Tage (And Skinner?)
Holy guacamole, 8 (5v5!) points for Tage in his last ten and 7 for Jeff! Tage is, with no surprise, on career smashing paces for all of it. Jeff, on the other hand, is just a few shy of matching his point pace when he was with Jack and Jason/Sam. Gonna laugh at me now for saying the Kraken should’ve taken Jeff instead of 0 games played William Borgen? (Maybe you should, who knows!)
2. Facing The King of Rookies
In case you haven’t heard, Lucas Raymond (2020 4th overall selection) is just killing it over there in Detroit. Like Tage, he also has 8 points in his last ten. Can we slow down the dynamic first line of Larkin, Raymond and Bertuzzi? We didn’t last time, he had a solid 3 apples back on the 6th of November.
3. Can Tokarski save us again?
Total speculation here, but we can’t expect Dell to keep coming and dropping the ball like he has been. Donnie’s been nice enough to not say he ever blames the goalie, but he’s gotta be at his wit’s end. Matt Murray hit the waiver wire, and that probably makes sense only if the Senators take a fat chunk off that contract (no more than 50% is allowed) and we get some compensation in return. I can’t imagine UPL gets the nod with his lackluster results, but Houser isn’t any better. Anderson has a seemingly not-short-term injury, we’re running low on options. We didn’t go into the season with solid options, let alone options that could handle the injury bugs. Out of left field answer, 25 year old Mat Robson is doing very well in Cincinnati (ECHL), does he get a PTO to fill in until Anderson is ready?
Just kidding, see you Aaron Dell at 7 PM tonight.
Projected Lineups
Buffalo Sabres
Forwards
Jeff Skinner – Tage Thompson – Victor Olofsson
Arttu Ruotsalainen – Dylan Cozens – Kyle Okposo
Anders Bjork – Zemgus Girgensons – Rasmus Asplund
Vinnie Hinostroza – Cody Eakin – John Hayden
Defense
Rasmus Dahlin – Mark Pysyk
Jacob Bryson – Henri Jokiharju
Robert Hagg – Colin Miller
Starting Goaltender: Aaron Dell (expected)
Detroit Red Wings
Forwards
Tyler Bertuzzi – Dylan Larkin – Lucas Raymond
RobbyFabbri – Pius Suter – Filip Zadina
Vlad Namestnikov – Michael Rasmussen – Adam Erne
Giviani Smith – Joe Veleno – Sam Gagner
Defense
Jordan Osterle – Moritz Seider
Nick Leddy – Filip Hronek
Dan Renouf – Gustav Lindstrom
Starting Goaltender: Alex Nedeljkovic (expected)