Everything you need to know before tonight's match-up between the Red Wings and Stars
Everything you need to know before tonight's match-up between the Red Wings and Stars
Tonight, the Detroit Red Wings will look to continue their winning start to 2024 against the Dallas Stars at Little Caesars Arena.
Throughout the new year, the Red Wings have made a habit of finding a way to the right side of tight games, even when trailing for long stretches. Per Joe Veleno, that's a credit to a veteran group that knows how to remain calm in any game state.
"There's some games where we take the lead early and some games that we don't, but we don't get too high or too low," Veleno told The Hockey News. "We don't let our emotions take over. We stay neutral, and we just play. The results obviously matter, but I think it's just the process of sticking together, playing within our system, and trusting our game plan."
Lineups
At morning skate, Detroit showed an identical lineup to the one it used Sunday night to beat the Lightning.
That means that Patrick Kane and Ben Chiarot remain unavailable for the time being.
"Patty's getting close to skating here towards the end of the week," coach Derek Lalonde said of Kane. "Touch and go whether we could see him before the break. I'd be surprised or disappointed if we don't see him after the break." Meanwhile, with respect to Chiarot, Lalonde said, "Benny's still a nagging day-to-day type thing."
While neither player seems poised to miss an especially long period of time, it also sounds as though neither's return is all that imminent at the moment.
Dallas Brings Depth and Goaltending to Detroit
The Stars arrive in Detroit for the final stop in a four-game road trip. Dallas picked up a win in New Jersey, sandwiched around losses in Philadelphia and on Long Island. Though they might not be scorching hot at the moment, the Stars' depth poses a challenge
"Balanced offense," replied Lalonde, when asked what impresses him about Dallas. "You look at their lineup and [Joe] Pavelski and [Jamie] Benn are on the third line. It's a match-up nightmare...I just think [we need to be] committed to keeping it out of our net through our entire lineup...Little different animal than what we've seen of late with the depth." That challenge is accentuated by Chiarot's absence.
Meanwhile, Jake Oettinger will start in goal for the Stars, and while he might not have the resume of Andrei Vasilevskiy, that does mean another difficult goaltending matchup for the Red Wings to contend with.
"With good goaltenders like that, you want to try to take their eyes away as much as possible on the ice," said Veleno. "Always want to have a guy in front of the net. Always want to throw pucks at them."
Where to Watch
Tonight's game (a 7 PM start) will be on its usual television home of Bally Sports Detroit. Out of market fans will also have their familiar viewing options: ESPN+ and Hulu.
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