The Red Wings return home tonight to take on an excellent Carolina Hurricanes team, fresh off a shellacking at the hands of the Devils last night. The Hurricanes made the Eastern Conference Final and are looking to have another deep run in the postseason this year, sporting a 14-8-1 record entering tonight. As usual, Carolina is led by the strength of their defense, while the Red Wings enter looking to restart a point streak after seeing their five game streak snapped on Tuesday, having suffered three straight regulation losses entering tonight. Here are the lineups and three things to watch:

Things may be a little jumbled due to the injury to Anthony Mantha and call up of Filip Zadina (discussed below). Right now the lines have him being inserted on the second line and Athanasiou being bumped up to the top line. I’d ideally like to see him be a 1-for-1 substitution for Mantha and play with Larkin and Bertuzzi on the top line, but regardless it is reasonable to expect Zadina to play in the top-6, given the lack of skill in the bottom-6. Adam Erne is also out so Taro Hirose and Christoffer Ehn will both likely see the lineup.

This is a very balanced Carolina team who can currently roll three scoring lines. Svechnikov-Aho-Teravainen is the de facto top line, though it’s listed as the second line here, with Svechnikov already starting to become the star winger he was drafted so highly to be. Martin Necas is having a terrific rookie year, and playing on a line with Nino Niederreiter and Lucas Wallmark, it forms a solid third line. Defensively, all three pairings are somewhere between good and great and that’s the strength of this Carolina team.

Anthony Mantha left last night’s game with a lower body injury and is expected to miss 1-2 weeks, which has resulted in the call up of prized prospect Filip Zadina from Grand Rapids. Zadina played 9 games in Detroit last year with 1 goal, as he was forced to play during one of the several nadirs of last season. After a frustrating preseason that saw him go scoreless and a bit of a slump to start the AHL season, Zadina has 6 goals and 6 assists for 12 points in his last 13 games in Grand Rapids, playing with confidence and creativity. Last year Zadina played mostly on the second line with Andreas Athanasiou during his time in Detroit. Where he plays in the lineup and how he looks will be a storyline to follow tonight.

Right now the Norris Trophy race for best defenseman in the league is probably a three-way race between John Carlson of Washington, Cale Makar of Colorado, and Dougie Hamilton of Carolina (Nashville’s Roman Josi may have a case too). Hamilton is leading the league in goals by a defender with 10 and has 25 points in 23 games, tied for second in the league with Makar. Hamilton’s growth across several teams (Boston, Calgary, and now Carolina) has been impressive and getting to watch Hamilton go to work will be a delight even for Red Wings fans tonight.

The Red Wings are starved for scoring to come from somewhere outside the top six forwards and Filip Hronek. Last night Taro Hirose was able to pot Detroit’s only goal which was a decent sign, but they still need more from the bottom of the lineup. While many of those players are not offensively minded, Brendan Perlini has looked okay, for example, but has been unable to find the score sheet. Furthermore, after Frans Nielsen finally got an assist on Thursday, the Red Wings would love to get more offense from him in the near future.