The Red Wings had a slow-start against Tampa Bay, but settled in nicely and had a shot to win but ended up losing 3-2—thanks to a terrible turnover from everyone’s favourite defenseman Jonathan Ericsson.

The Red Wings now sit at 4-2-0 but their tough week continues tonight in Toronto before returning home to host the Washington Capitals on Friday. The Red Wings catch a break tonight because the Maple Leafs played in Washington last night, meaning Frederik Andersen will get the night off and Curtis McElhinney will be between the pipes.

Before we look at tonight’s lineups, lets take a peek at how these two teams match-up right now:

The Red Wings had an optional morning skate, so there was no indication whether or not they will make any lineup changes tonight. Gustav Nyquist briefly left Monday’s game, but was able to return before the end of the contest.

Anthony Mantha is expected to remain on the top-line with Nyquist and Henrik Zetterberg. Mantha played under 15 minutes in three of the first four games, but has seen 19:53 and 20:35 TOI in his last two contests. Mantha continues to carry an impressive 58.4 CF% and a 12.1 relative Corsi—and yes, I will continue to tout Mantha’s possession numbers as long as he has a ridiculous relative Corsi. This line has only been together for a short period of time, but together they have a 75.86 CF% and have scored two goals while not giving up any.

Danny DeKeyser skated a little bit this morning, but is expected to miss 1-to-2 weeks. With DeKeyser out, Ericsson, Xavier Ouellet and Niklas Kronwall remain in the lineup.

The Maple Leafs lead the NHL in goals and are one of the most exciting teams in the league. They absolutely fly around the ice, but are susceptible to giving up a lot scoring chances against. The top-line of Zach Hyman–Auston Matthews–William Nylander has been one of the most dominant lines in the NHL to start the season. Of the lines who have played at least 50 minutes together at 5v5, that trio ranks sixth in the league with a 57.38 CF% and have yet to give up a goal in 57:04 TOI.

Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk remain paired together, but prior to yesterday’s game they got a new right winger. Mitch Marner, who has struggled defensively to start the season, was moved to the fourth line and Connor Brown took his spot with Bozak and JVR. This line will likely matchup against the Martin Frk–Frans Nielsen–Darren Helm line and they have been smashed at even-strength this season—allowing 38 shots and 29 scoring chances against while generating just 27 shots for. If those two lines are enough to worry about, Patrick Marleau, who will appear in his 1,500th game tonight, is on a line with Nazem Kadri and Leo Komarov and they will be tasked with trying to slow down the Zetterberg line, but bring a lot of offence of their own. This is a deep team, but their blueline still has some holes and the Red Wings should be able to score some goals—but they need to do so while limiting the powerful Leafs offence.

Jimmy Howard will start for the second straight game and for the third time in four games. Howard’s three-game winning streak was snapped on Monday, but he comes into Wednesday with a 1.97 GAA and .942 SV%. Howie struggled in his only start against the Maple Leafs last season, giving up five goals on 27 shots in a 5-4 loss in April.

McElhinney is a 34-year-old career backup. He was with the Blue Jackets from 2014 until being claimed off of waivers by the Maple Leafs in January of last season. After his move to Toronto, McElhinney went 6-7-0 with a 2.85 GAA, .914 SV% and one shutout. It doesn’t matter a lot, but he has just one career win in five games vs. the Red Wings.

The Red Wings will be all over television in North America on Wednesday. In the United States you can find the game with Ken and Mickey on FoxSportsDetroit-PLUS and in Canada on SporsNet360 and SportsNet1.

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