New York Rangers @ Detroit Red Wings: Updates, Lineups, Keys to the Game

Updates

[Ed Note: Re-read the Bultman tweet. Best we have to go on yesterday is practice lines that did include big Elmer, didn’t include Perron and definitely didn’t include Givani Smith. I’m not making guarantees as to the accuracy or the fidelity we can expect ouf of this group of 12 here. Share your own thoughts on how you’d organize them – J.J.]

Forwards

Pius Suter – Dylan Larkin – Lucas Raymond

Dominik Kubalik – Andrew Copp – David Perron

Adam Erne – Michael Rasmussen – Austin Czarnik

Givani Smith – Joe Veleno – Jonatan Berggren

Defense

Ben Chiarot – Moritz Seider

Olli Maatta – Filip Hronek

Jordan Oesterle – Gustav Lindstrom

Goalies

Alex Nedeljkovic

Villi Husso

RANGERS

Forwards

Artemi Panarin – Mika Zibanejad – Kaapo Kakko

Jimmy Vesey – Vincent Trocheck – Alexis Lafreniere

Chris Kreider – Filip Chytil – Julien Gauthier

Sammy Blais – Ryan Carpenter – Barclay Goodrow

Defense

K’Andre Miller – Jacob Trouba

Libor Hajek – Adam Fox

Zac Jones – Braden Schneider

Goalies

Igor Shesterkin

Jaroslav Halak

Play with Patience

New York is a tough team to play against. They will look to grid a team down physically and punish players trying to get to the home plate area. Detroit will need to be patient with the puck in the offensive zone and not try to force passes or lanes that are not there.

Get Traffic and Pucks to the Front

This was a key in the last game and it will probably be a consistent one for Detroit throughout the season. With how the Red Wings are trying to play, they need to get traffic in front of the net and get the puck there as well in order to be successful. We have seen Raymond and Kubalik both have success recently with the “cross ice, back side pass for one timer goal” set play…including the game winner against the Rangers less than a week ago. New York will likely look to take that away so the Wings will have to be dogged or creative to get the success they need.

Help Out the Goalie

We have seen both Nedeljkovic and Husso have to all but stand on their heads countless times so far to save the team after an issue in the defensive/neutral zone led to a grade A chance for their opponents. While it is needed for a goalie to bail their teammates out from time to time, the frequency for which it has happened so far this season is way to high. They will need to limit the costly turnovers tonight against an opportunistic team like New York that uses it defensive first mindset to do just that. This is extra important when Mika Zibanejad is on the ice.