No lineup changes for #mnwild other than Gustavsson in net. Evason hasn’t heard yet whether Duhaime has been cleared to practice. Hartman on ice.
— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithNHL) December 14, 2022
[Editor’s Note – We have seen no reporting from anybody who is within the team or has access to them to describe the line combinations. in looking at last night’s third period, there’s a lot of blending around for a team that was skating down a forward so treat these line combos as best-guess rather than actually-reported, please]
David Perron – Pius Suter? – Lucas Raymond
Jonatan Berggren? – Michael Rasmussen – Dominik Kubalik
Adam Erne – Andrew Copp – Oskar Sundqvist
Elmer Soderblom – Joe Veleno – Austin Czarnik
Ben Chiarot – Moritz Seider
Jake Walman – Filip Hronek
Jordan Oesterle – Gustav Lindstrom
Alex Nedeljkovic
Ville Husso
Kirill Kaprizov – Sam Steel – Mats Zuccarello
Sammy Walker – Frederick Gaudreau – Matthew Boldy
Jordan Greenway – Joel Eriksson Ek – Marcus Foligno
Ryan Reaves – Connor Dewar – Mason Shaw
Jacob Middleton – Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin – Matt Dumba
Jon Merrill – Calen Addison
Filip Gustavsson
Marc-Andrea Fleury
Don’t get caught up in the chippiness. Seems like every time the Red Wings play the Wild lately, something ugly happens. Dumba hitting Raymond’s head into the ice last year comes to mind, but Minnesota has enough guys that play the pest. Without Larkin, the Wings are going to need all the 5-on-5 and man-advantage time they can get to generate offense.
Make some decent ice! I know, this isn’t directed at any Detroit-related personnel, but the ice last night against the Canes clearly sucked. So many guys fell down behind the nets and along the boards in awkward, unprovoked ways. Hopefully the staff at the Xcel have a good sheet of ice laid down tonight. Makes for a more fun game. (The fact that Xcel Energy Center is a single-use facility should help.)
Step up. Detroit has dealt with injuries non-stop this season. However, an injury to Bertuzzi or Fabbri, or Vrana being out, is different than Larkin being unavailable. Someone, probably a center, needs to find something special tonight. You ready, Suter and Ras?
The game can be streamed on SlingTV tonight as well, which is what I’ll be doing for the first period – J.J.