Fresh off a rival sweep, the surging Red Wings confront a red-hot Wild in a grueling road back-to-back test.
Detroit is coming off a massive momentum boost from Wednesday night as they completed their series sweep over the Toronto Maple Leafs in a thrilling 2-1 overtime victory. Sweeping a fierce rival while also making major moves within the division was a massive win for the Red Wings but now they must turn their focus to an even more difficult opponent in the second night of a road back-to-back when facing the Minnesota Wild.
The Central division in the West owns all three of the top teams in the conference with the Wild rounding out the three spot. Minnesota made waves earlier this season when completing a blockbuster trade to add superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks.
Since adding the 26-year-old blueliner, the Wild are one of the seven best teams in the NHL with a 11-5-4 record over their last 20 games while the Red Wings during this span are the best team in hockey.
Road back-to-back games are especially challenging because of the discomfort that comes with constant travel. Teams must move from city to city, often spending long hours on buses or planes while fatigued, while their opponents are usually well rested, coming straight from home and ready to compete.
Lineup Storylines#
The Red Wings offense was put in a pressure cooker Wednesday when facing the Maple Leafs as they were only able to find the back of the net just once in regulation. Goaltender John Gibson played hero for Detroit, making a clutch 30 saves on 31 shots and will get a much deserved day off Thursday while backup Cam Talbot draws in.
The 38-year-old veteran had played two seasons with the Wild and will look to get some revenge on his former team in what will be a big spot for the team. After dropping six straight starts, Talbot enters this contest with a 2-1-1 record with just ten goals allowed and a .924 save percentage.
He'll need to play a solid game after the Red Wings just finished battling for a hard-fought win on Wednesday and will need to bring their best in a quick turnaround. These are the kind of games where depth scoring is crucial as Dylan Larkin and Simon Edvinsson helped lift Detroit to a win, now the pressure falls on the others to compete like the once red hot second line.
Alex DeBrincat, Patrick Kane and Andrew Copp were all finally held off the scoresheet when facing Toronto and will need to bounce back with another killer performance. The trio has been the gasoline behind the Red Wings recent hot streak with a combined 25 goals over their last 24 games.
If they can't get past the Minnesota defense, depth forwards in James van Riemsdyk and Michael Rasmussen will need to spark some offense from their respective lines. The third line features some ice cold forwards like rookie Emmitt Finnie and J.T. Compher but hopefully the red hot van Riemsdyk can lift them up with 14 points over his last 14 games.
Rasmussen was also hot for a brief period of time around the holidays with a seven-game stretch where he recorded five points in seven games but has since gone seven straight games without a point and is due.
For Minnesota, the Red Wings should look to target the obvious stars on the Wild in Kirill Kaprizov and Quinn Hughes as they're both averaging well over a point-per-game over their last 19 games but there's one sneaky name to keep an eye on. It's a player Detroit fans won't be happy to see as former Red Wings forward Vladimir Tarasenko is on a roll.
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After bringing in the Russian winger last season, Tarasenko wasn't a fit in Detroit and was later offloaded to the Wild for a draft pick to try and clear his aggressive cap hit. Since then, the 34-year-old is starting to find his game once again and is red hot entering Thursday with goals in three straight, totaling five goals and three assists for eight points over his last four games.
The Detroit backend will need to play solid if they want to limit chances to players like Kaprizov or Tarasenko and give the team a fighting chance in this game.
Goalie Matchup#
Detroit: Cam Talbot (Season: 11-7-3 record, 2.95 GAA, .891 SV% | VS MIN: 9-8-2 record, 2.43 GAA, .924 SV% in 19 games)
Minnesota: Filip Gustavsson (Season: 16-9-5 record, 2.56 GAA, .908 SV% | VS DET: 2-3-0 record, 2.45 GAA, .889 SV% in five games)
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