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)