Time: 7:30pm ET
Place: Little Caesars Arena – Detroit, MI
TV: BSDET, ROOT-NW
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket
Kraken Blog: Davy Jones Locker Room
What a difference a week makes. Last week Wednesday the Red Wings returned home after a four-game road trip that saw them lose all four games, including a 2-1 OT loss to the last place Arizona Coyotes. Flash forward a week to today and the Red Wings have won three straight, including a 2-1 win in Boston last night. As the calendar turns to December the Wings look to push that to a four-game win streak tonight as they welcome for the first time ever, the Seattle Kraken to Detroit.
Seattle comes into Little Caesars Arena tonight struggling to find consistency over the first 22 games of the franchise but looking to build off a modest two game winning streak of their own. Up front they have found a more balanced scoring result than most expected they would after the expansion draft. Seven forwards have double digit points (the Red Wings have six) and two forwards (Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann) with double digit goals (Dylan Larkin is the Red Wings lone forward with double digit goals). They do not have the superstar firepower up front but they have a lot of solid depth at forward, a trend that carries over to their blue line. Vince Dunn (1G, 8A), Jamie Oleksiak (1G, 7A), Mark Giordano (3G, 4A), and Adam Larsson (1G, 5A) lead a solid D corps that has proven capable of chipping in on offense but is still a bit prone to mistakes in their own end. This is an issue Wings fans are somewhat familiar with, but whereas the Red Wings have received some stellar goaltending from Alex Nedeljkovic (.923 save percentage over 15 games), Philipp Grubauer (.890 save percentage in 17 games) has struggled with keeping the puck out of his net consistently.
On special teams, Seattle comes in with the advantage over Detroit in both, but that is more a testament to Detroit’s struggles with consistency in their unit than Seattle’s prowess with or without the man advantage.
Overall, this has the makings of a potentially exciting and fun game and should be one where the Red Wings look to put pressure on early against a team that can score but struggles to keep the puck out of their own net as well.