After a crushing 1-0 shutout loss to the Washington Capitals, your Detroit Red Wings are back in action on National television (in Canada).

So many wasted chances were seen in that game against the Caps, peppering Grubauer with 39 shots while Howard had to face 29. Let’s hope for another offensive showing like we had at home, on the road against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Leafs have won 5 of their last 6 games with a +13 goal differential, and averaging 34.2 SOG in those 6 games. They are giving the opposing goalies some heat – I hope Howard is ready with some icepacks or something.

Facing a hot Leafs team, the struggling Red Wings are in for a tough time. Unless Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi demonstrate some scoring prowess and with that, hope for the future, this team is going to be clinging on to the edge for most of this game.

Mike Green is out for the season and with the Grand Rapids Griffins in the middle of a 3-in-3 weekend, Luke Witkowski is taking Green’s spot in the lineup. Not like they have a capable player like Xavier Ouellet available or anything…

This blueline is going to look silly at least once this game, against the forward group the home team has.

It’s ok Wings fans, we can be jealous of the Leafs rebuild and how lucky they are to have a player like Auston Matthews taken with their 1st overall pick, and William Nylander not taken by the Vancouver Canucks, or the Arizona Coyotes not taking Mitch Marner. They are just so lucky.

Matthews returned the previous game against the Nashville Predators and had a goal to celebrate. He currently leads the league in even-strength Goals/GP with 0.5, and James van Riemsdyk is not far behind him with 23 even-strength goals in his 73 GP.

Behind this deep forward group there is a defence not equally as deep, but getting there. Jake Gardiner is having a career year in points, Morgan Rielly is continuing to grow into a no. 1 defenceman and Travis Dermott is a young hot-shot that is damn fun to watch. Then there’s Nikita Zaitsev and Roman Polak hogging up minutes and having the worst years of their careers. Defensively, this group is not the greatest but they make up for that with the scoring chances the help create for their forwards.

Jimmy put on a show Thursday night against the Caps, a .962 sv% stopping all but one puck of the 27 that were shot at him. That is sure to get some of that American blood pumping – have him feeling young again. His first game that he had a save percentage above .910, nice to see the old Jimmy again once in a while.

Andersen has been a reliable keeper for the Leafs in his two years with the club since the trade from the Anaheim Ducks. He is 5th among all goaltenders in Quality Starts and has demonstrated so far that the heavy workload is no problem for him. A .918 sv% for the year puts him 17th among goalies that have at least 10 GP. A reliable keeper for the Leafs, let’s see if Anthony Mantha can break him down with a rocket over his shoulder.

Puck drop is at 7:00pm EST in the Air Canada Centre between these old rivals. You can watch it on Fox Sports Detroit, or on CBC as Hockey Night in Canada early game. Hear Ron MacLean make puns and Elliotte Friedman talk about the latest news around the league. Gonna be a fun game – hopefully.

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