Time: 7:00 PM ET
Place: Little Caesars Arena
TV: FS-D, FS-SW
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket // 1270 AM
Stars Blog: Defending Big D
Don’t look now, but the Red Wings have won three of their last four and have scored 14 goals in that stretch, including 5 from Robby Fabbri. They’re also one win away from clawing over Dallas and out of the Central basement. Granted, Dallas has played five fewer games in Detroit, but wouldn’t it just feel good to look at those standings and not see the Wings at the very bottom of the division?
Unfortunately, Denis Gurianov fell on Bernier and injured his right knee in the victory two nights ago against Dallas. This casts a shadow over tonight since Bernier has been far and away Detroit’s most consistent player and is arguably the team’s MVP. Greiss will get the start in net tonight while Calvin Pickard has been called up to chart faceoffs. Hopefully Bernier isn’t away for long; confidence in Greiss has slipped considerably since the beginning of the season thanks in large part to his 2-11-0 record.
Expect Dallas to come out furiously against the Red Wings tonight. The Stars are desperate for points; their points percentage continues to trail Chicago and Columbus, and if they want a shot at returning to the Stanley Cup this year, they have to begin turning things around in short order. From their perspective, winning a game against a weak Detroit team will be key. But maybe Detroit is starting to show that even if they’re not world beaters, they may have been unlucky in a number of ways during the first half of the season.