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Three Things to Watch in Tonight’s Preseason Game vs. St. Louis

Photo credit: Billy Hurst-USA TODAY Sports

By Alex Drain

Sep 26, 2019, 14:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 26, 2019, 13:54 EDT

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The Red Wings are back in preseason action tonight against the defending Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues. The game will be nationally televised on NBC Sports Network at 7:00 pm EST. Here are three storylines to watch:

1.) The NHL comes to Calumet

Perhaps the most intriguing thing about tonight’s matchup is the fact it’s taking place in the tiny town of Calumet, Michigan. For the many non-Michigander Red Wings fans out there, Calumet is a town of around 700 people in Houghton County, which is in the upper tip of the UP, on Lake Superior. It’s a nearly 9 hour drive to Detroit and was the home to a few notable people, including John Sherf, the first US citizen to have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup (as a part of the 1937 Detroit Red Wings), and George Gipp of “Win One for the Gipper” fame. Calumet, like a lot of the UP, is a rabid hockey area, and it won Kraft’s Hockeyville USA title in 2019. The game will be played in the Calumet Colosseum, built in 1913, and it is perhaps the oldest operating ice rink in North America and one of the oldest indoor hockey arenas in the world. This is actually the second time that the NHL has played a preseason game in the UP, after the Hurricanes and Sabres played in Marquette, Michigan, back in 2016. Regardless of outcome, this will be an awesome venue to show off the hockey culture of small-town northern Michigan, and is a once-in-a-lifetime event for locals of Calumet.

2.) The Top line vs the Champs

After resting most of the stars last night in Pittsburgh, the Red Wings are rolling out a healthy chunk of this season’s NHL lineup tonight in Calumet. This includes, according to the morning skate, the dynamic top line of Bertuzzi-Larkin-Mantha, which has only made a few appearances this preseason. More importantly, the reigning Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues will be playing a handful of their stars too, including Conn Smythe Winner Ryan O’Reilly, David Perron, Colton Parayko, and goalie Jordan Binnington. This game will thus represents one of the clearest tests of a line that is expected to provide a bulk of Detroit’s offense this preseason. Furthermore, the Red Wings are starting Danny DeKeyser and Filip Hronek, which will likely be the season’s top defensive pairing, in this game, and we also get to see bubble players Dennis Cholowski and Madison Bowey on defense. All things considered, this game is a pretty solid dress rehearsal for what to expect in 2019-20.

3.) Watching the future before our eyes

The second and third lines for the Red Wings are a great sampler of some of the best prospects in the Detroit farm system. The second line is projected to be Taro Hirose-Joe Veleno-Filip Zadina, and the third line is projected to be Christoffer Ehn-Michael Rasmussen-Evgeny Svechnikov. While most of these players will spend the season in Grand Rapids, they are a glimpse of a future Red Wings team, and getting to see them go up against a solid portion of what was hockey’s best team last season will be interesting. Maybe the most intriguing question is whether Filip Zadina can find the back of the net, as the talented winger had a strong game Sunday but continues to be snakebitten ever so slightly when it comes to goal-scoring.