WGD: GAME 56: RED WINGS vs. BLUES

The Red Wings are expected to be without Gustav Nyqvist, who is expected to be suspended later this afternoon—his phone hearing with the NHL Department of Player Safety is scheduled for 2p.m. Thankfully for the Red Wings, they are expected to get Thomas Vanek (ankle) back after he was held out of the lineup on Sunday. 

With Nyquist out and Vanek in, the Red Wings will have their “ideal” top-6 intact tonight. Their first line of Tomas Tatar–Henrik Zetterberg–Anthony Mantha has played 213:25 TOI together at even-strength this season and lead the Red Wings with a 57.82 CorsiFor% and are second with a 70.00 GoalsFor%. The team-lead in GF% is the Andreas Athanasiou–Frans Nielsen-Vanek line (81.82) and they rank second in CF% (56.29) in 89:27 TOI at 5v5. (Stats per Corsica) 

It’s good to have the “ideal” top-6 together, but the Red Wings have been scoring at a nice rate lately, but are still struggling to keep the puck out of their own net. Since the start of January the Red Wings are 22nd in the NHL in goals for (2.55) and 26th in the league in goals against (3.35). Their blueline has been just terrible and the goaltending hasn’t been good enough to patch up the gaping holes. 

The Blues will be without two of their top-6 forwards tonight. Robby Fabbri will miss the rest of the regular season and Paul Stasny (lower-body) is on IR and is expected to miss at least two games. With those two out, Kenny Agostino and Magnus Paajarvi are up from Chicago (AHL). 

Agostino, 24, leads the AHL in points having collected 18 goals and 42 assists (60 points) in 48 games and has registered a goal and an assist in four games since being promoted. Former first round pick (No.10 overall in 2009) of the Oilers, Paajarvi had 16 points (6G /10A) in 25 games before being called up and has three points (2G / 1A) in six games with the Blues. 

The Blues strength is the right side of their blueline and Vladimir Tarasenko. The Russian winger is tied for sixth in the NHL in goals (26) and is tied for 11th in points (53). The right side of their bluely features Alex Pietrangelo, Kevin Shattenkirk and Colton Parayko. That is ridiculous when you compare it to the Red Wings’ blueline. And now you know why we’re in the bottom-5 in the NHL. 

Petr Mrazek will be back in goal for Detroit and Carter Hutton is expected to be in net for St. Louis. 

Mrazek stopped 37 of 39 shots in the Red Wings’ loss to the Blue Jackets on Saturday and is now 2-2-1 with a 2.80 GAA, .920 SV% and one shutout in his last five starts. It hasn’t been pretty for Mrazek, but he’s looked better recently and he played very well in his first start vs. St. Louis. The 25-year-old stopped 31 of 32 shots in a 2-1 shootout win at Scottrade Center back in October. 

For Hutton, he’s probably played more than he expected he was going to when signing with the Blues this summer. The 31-year-old career backup is coming off of a 26-save shutout in Philadelphia in his last start (Feb 6) and will make his 16th start and 24th overall appearance tonight. he is 8-7-2 with a 2.66 GAA, .903 SV% and three shutouts on the season. In his only career start against the Red Wings, Hutton was yanked after allowing three goals on four shots. 

Puck drop is at 8:00pm at Joe Louis Arena. You can watch the game on NBC Sports Network. If you can’t watch the game you can listen to it on 97.1 FM The Ticket. 

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