The Detroit Red Wings continue their home-stand today against the Atlantic Division rival Ottawa Senators in a match up of two teams near the bottom of the NHL standings. With now less than 18 games and just about one month remaining in the NHL season, things are getting down to the very end. As always, we have lines and three things to watch for in today’s preview:

Filip Hronek is back on defense for the Red Wings after missing time with a head injury and that’s a massive gain for the Red Wings blue-line. Sam Gagner has now slotted onto the second line for Detroit, more or less taking the spot of Andreas Athanasiou. I would expect Jonathan Bernier in net tonight after the meltdown Jimmy Howard had on Thursday against Minnesota.

Michigan Hockey fans are very familiar with Josh Norris. The young hot-shot center prospect is now anchoring Ottawa’s top line after a monster AHL season. Bobby Ryan slots in on the wing, and is the talk of the NHL after his hat trick a couple nights ago.

This is the third preview I’ve written in less than a week and I continually feel like the poor social media interns who have to come up with three “keys to the game” for each Red Wings game that get posted on Twitter and Instagram.

The first thing to watch for is the reasonable hope that perhaps Detroit will not surrender 7 goals like they did on Thursday against Minnesota. The defense has been bad all season long but it has only gotten worse, giving up four or more goals in four straight games and in seven of the last eight. So let’s just call it a victory if somehow Detroit doesn’t surrender four or more goals this time out.

Sam Gagner has now played one game in a Red Wings uniform and Cody Goloubef has now played two. While the most interesting acquisition, Dmytro Timashov, is still dealing with visa-related issues, these two players are at least something to watch in that they are new to the team. Neither have had a big impact yet, and neither are expected to, but again, we’re looking for small points of intrigue here.

Goloubef has logged 160 career games on four different teams as a journeyman type, while Sam Gagner is a proud member of the He Used To Be Good hall of fame. A former consistent 40+ point middle six forward, he’s now on his sixth team and has just 25 points combined over the last two seasons. On the wrong side of 30, Gagner is looking to re-start his career and hopefully show something in the final 15 games in Detroit that could allow him to weasel back onto a contender in the near future.

Anthony Mantha’s goal on Thursday was the lone bright spot in the abysmal 7-1 loss to the Wild. With the season now entering the final stretch run, the Wings would like to see the oft-injured Mantha return to the 40 goal pace he was on pre-injury, giving them a reminder of the talent they do still have on the roster. Mantha’s combination of skill, size, and wrist shot make him such a dangerous goal-scorer, he just needs to stay healthy. He failed to do that again this year, but another strong close to the season like he had last year could rejuvenate optimism about Mantha as we head into another long offseason.