After a four-game road-trip, the Red Wings returned home on the weekend, losing 2-1 in a shootout to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Red Wings actually played a good game, carrying the play for the majority of the game, but had a hard time solving Sergei Bobrovsky, which isn’t rare.

Tonight they catch a bit of a break with Mike Smith (undisclosed) sidelined with an injury. With Smith out, Eddie Lack gets the call for the Flames and he is a significantly worse goalie than the one they faced on Saturday. Detroit faced the same Flames team on the road last Thursday, losing 6-3 in a high-event hockey game. Calgary comes into Detroit with a 4-2-0 record while averaging 2.67 goals for and 2.50 goals against per game on the road this season.

Let’s see how these two teams match-up.

The Red Wings will be forced to make a number of lineup changes tonight. Martin Frk (groin) and Darren Helm (undisclosed) are not available, but they will get Justin Abdelkader back from a fractured cheek bone. David Booth will also draw back in as the 12th forward.

The sample size is extremely small, but the Tomas Tatar–Dylan Larkin–Andreas Athanasiou line has been impressive, but maybe it’s just anyone who plays with Dylan Larkin plays better.

The Red Wings were torched by the Flames’ top line last week. Johnny Gaudreau had two goals and one assist, Sean Monahan had two helpers and Michael Ferland picked one goal—he is on a four-game goal scoring streak. ‘

Mark Jankowski picked up his first career NHL goal in that game and then added two goals and an assist on Monday—giving up four points in his last two games. The return of Jaromir Jagr seems to have settled the Flames secondary scoring woes for the time being, making it hard for the Red Wings to match-up on the road, so being at Little Caesars Arena should help this time around.

Jimmy Howard gets back between the pipes for the Red Wings after stopping 32 of 33 shots in the shootout loss to Columbus. Howard has had a really good year so far, going 6-5-1 with a 2.34 GAA and .930 SV%, including a 2-2-1 record, 2.57 GAA and .922 SV% at LCA.

Lack hasn’t played a lot because Smith is a workhorse. In just 111:45 of playing time this year, Lack has allowed a combined seven goals on just 49 shots (.857 SV%). He’s allowed three power-play goals on just eight shots (.625 SV%), which doesn’t bode well considering the Flames have the 29th ranked power-play this year. The Red Wings have a good chance to rack up some goals tonight.

Puck-drop between the Red Wings and Flames is at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan. You can catch the game on Fox Sports Detroit-PLUS in the United States or SportsNet in Canada.

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