The Wings’ lines are as Detroit has been skating for the last two days in practice.
Alex Nedeljkovic is the first goalie off for the Red Wings
— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) October 14, 2021
The Bolts lost Zach Bogosian to injury after their first game. His replacement is a name many of you will be familiar with.
Andrej Sustr was at @TBLightning skate in Detroit. An optional skate, so no lines. But expect same as yesterday’s practice
— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithTB) October 14, 2021
Finally this:
Forwards
Bertuzzi – Larkin – Raymond
Fabbri – Suter – Zadina
Namestnikov – Rasmussen – Erne
Smith – Stephens – Gagner
Defense
DeKeyser – Hronek
Leddy – Seider
Staal – Lindstrom
Goalies
Nedeljkovic
Greiss
Forwards
Palat – Point – Kucherov
Killorn – Cirelli – Stamkos
Maroon – Colton – Perry
Joseph – Bellemare – Raddysh
Defense
Hedman – Rutta
McDonagh – Cernak
Sergachev – Sustr
Goalies
Vasilevskiy
Elliott
Use the youth and enthusiasm. It’s wild to think that guys like Larkin and Hronek are the established veterans on this team, with DeKeyser being a total grey beard at this point, but this is a very different team from what many of us have ever seen in our lifetimes. There’s a lot of reason to feel some optimism this season; the last time the Wings were an up-and-coming team was about ten years before Larkin was born. The stadium is going to be rocking, and the team ought to be, too.
Change the narrative with Tampa. Since this season is a fresh start for the Wings in so many ways, this opening game against Tampa is really a gift. It allows Detroit to come out early in the season and change the way they’ve played against a team that has mostly dominated them over the past five years. Regardless of the final result, Detroit can change the tone against arguably their biggest rival (who hasn’t considered Detroit as much of a rival in very long time.)
Believe in Michael Rasmussen. There are a lot of exciting names to follow in this opener, like Raymond, Seider, and Nedeljkovic, but I am really keen on Ras’s development this season. I enjoy picking out players that I hope take a big jump every season, and so the guy that may best serve as a metaphor for the Red Wings is actually Michael Rasmussen. Detroit took the big center with the 9th overall pick in 2017 and since then he’s taken some steps to plant himself firmly in the middle six on this team, but a new season is calling for the 22-year-old to take a big leap forward and establish himself as a secondary scoring threat. I’m hoping for great things from Ras this season, and best case scenario is he shows those improvements right out of the gate.