GAME DAY: Wings, Leafs meet in Original Six tilt at LCA (7:00 p.m. ET, BSDET)

To our northern neighbors, Saturday is “Hockey Day in Canada.”

For the Detroit Red Wings, it’s just another day for a hockey game — albeit one against a fellow Original Six team and division rival.

Saturday’s clash between the Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs will be shown nationally on Sportsnet in Canada as part of the aforementioned “Hockey Day” festivities. In the States, it’ll be broadcast on Bally Sports’ regional Detroit network.

The Red Wings will take the ice for their second game in as many days, having most recently defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3–2 in a shootout on Jan. 28. With the win, Detroit improved to 19–19–6 on the season.

@Givani Smith and @Filip Zadina scored in regulation on Friday before @Lucas Raymond netted the winner in the skills competition. Red Wings goaltender @Calvin Pickard made 36 saves for his first win since Mar. 28, 2021.

Was it a coincidence that Detroit snapped its three-game losing streak on Friday when defenseman Danny DeKeyser sat out as a healthy scratch? The much-maligned 31-year-old rearguard has appeared in 35 games this season — primarily alongside @Moritz Seider on the Red Wings’ top pair — and has fared so poorly that it’s unlikely he receives a contract when he becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Barring a change in goal (expect @Alex Nedeljkovic to get the start), the Red Wings will likely go with the same lineup on Saturday as the one they iced in Pittsburgh. If that’s the case going forward, it’ll be interesting to see when (or if) DeKeyser gets back in the lineup on a consistent basis. @Jordan Oesterle slotted in for DeKeyser to Seider’s left against the Penguins.

The Maple Leafs have amassed 15 points in their last 10 games and currently rank third in the Atlantic Division with a 26–10–3 record. Saturday’s game will be the second of three this year between these two teams; they previously met in Toronto on Oct. 30, with @John Tavares picking up three points in a 5–4 Leafs victory.

Projected lineup via DailyFaceoff.com:

@Vladislav Namestnikov – @Dylan Larkin – @Lucas Raymond
@Robby Fabbri – @Pius Suter – @Tyler Bertuzzi
@Adam Erne – @Michael Rasmussen – @Filip Zadina
@Givani Smith – @Joe Veleno – @Sam Gagner

@Jordan Oesterle – @Moritz Seider
@Marc Staal – @Filip Hronek
@Nick Leddy – @Gustav Lindstrom

Projected starter: @Alex Nedeljkovic (12–11–5, .912 SV%)

Projected lineup via DailyFaceoff.com:

@Michael Bunting – @Auston Matthews – @Ondrej Kase
@Ilya Mikheyev – @John Tavares – @Mitch Marner
@Alexander Kerfoot – @David Kampf – @William Nylander
@Pierre Engvall – @Jason Spezza – @Wayne Simmonds

@Morgan Rielly – TJ Brodie
@Rasmus Sandin – @Justin Holl
@Travis Dermott – @Timothy Liljegren

Detroit: @Tyler Bertuzzi (20 goals, 38 points); @Dylan Larkin (20 goals, 38 points); @Lucas Raymond (11 goals, 34 points); @Moritz Seider (four goals, 27 points); @Filip Hronek (four goals, 22 points).

Toronto: @Auston Matthews (25 goals, 43 points); @William Nylander (17 goals, 40 points); @John Tavares (16 goals, 38 points); @Morgan Rielly (five goals, 34 points); @Mitch Marner (10 goals, 28 points).

Detroit: Watch out for @Filip Zadina. Now that the 22-year-old forward has finally bumped his schneid, maybe he’ll start scoring more regularly. It’ll be hard for the 2018 sixth-overall pick to find much traction in the National Hockey League if he consistently goes two months between goals. As we explained two weeks ago, Zadina’s production is likely to increase if he remains one of the Red Wings’ best volume shooters and starts finding his way toward the dangerous areas of the ice surface more often.

Toronto: Hey there, @Petr Mrazek! The 29-year-old goaltender will make just his sixth appearance of the 2022–23 season when he mans the pipes against the Red Wings on Saturday. Mrazek is no stranger to Little Caesars Arena (or the now-demolished Joe Louis, for that matter), having spent parts of his first six NHL seasons with the Red Wings. He posted a 72–58–20 record, 13 shutouts, and a .912 save percentage in 166 games with Detroit between 2012–13 and 2017–18.

Saturday’s game in Detroit will be broadcast on Bally Sports Detroit (and, in Canada, nationally on Sportsnet) starting at 7:00 p.m. ET. It’ll be sent over the airwaves on WXYT-FM 97.1 “The Ticket” in the Detroit area, as well as on the Red Wings’ official website.

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