Updates
I’m covering the Avalanche in place of @MikeChambers through the weekend. Red Wings visit Ball Arena at 7 pm.
Health update: Nazem Kadri and Bowen Byram not participating in morning skate. JT Compher expected back tonight.
Avs also recalled Jacob McDonald.
— Kyle Fredrickson (@kylefredrickson) December 10, 2021
Jacob MacDonald was sent down this morning only to be called right back up.
Forwards
Robby Fabri – Dylan Larkin – Lucas Raymond
Joe Veleno – Pius Suter – Filip Zadina
Vladislav Namestnikov – Michael Rasmussen – Adam Erne
Givani Smith – Carter Rowney – Sam Gagner
Defense
Danny DeKeyser – Moritz Seider
Nick Leddy – Filip Hronek
Jordan Oesterle –
Goalies
Thomas Greiss
Alex Nedeljkovic
AVALANCHE
Forwards
Gabriel Landeskog – Nathan MacKinnon – Logan O’Connor
Valeri Nichushkin – JT Compher – Mikko Rantanen
Darren Helm – Alex Newhook – Andre Burakovsky
Kurtis MacDermid – Tyson Jost – Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Defense
Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Erik Johnson – Samuel Girard
Jack Johnson – Jason MacDonald
Goalies
Darcy Kuemper
Jonas Johansson
Work the Counter Attack
Colorado is a good possession team that has a lot of talent that will look to possess and push the puck whenever they can. The Red Wings are not a good enough possession team to play a possession vs possession game with Colorado. Instead, they should look to play solid defensively and take advantage of the counter attack opportunities when they arise.
Stay Out of the Box
This is a tougher ask based on the first key. Often the team with the puck most often is the team that gets more power play time. This is not an impossible task though, and if the Wings are going to win tonight they need to stay out of the box and off the penalty kill as much as possible. Even without giving up goals on the PK, constantly being down a man wears a team down and allows the opponent the opportunity to build up offensive momentum.
Get Greasy
The Red Wings have found the back of the net with some really impressive/eye opening goals this season. What they have not found as often is though hard work, drive to the net and cause chaos, greasy goals that the good teams will find (especially from their bottom six). They are going to need to find some of those tonight to win.