Time: 7:00 Eastern
Place: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit MI
TV: TNT
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket
Devils Blog: All About the Jersey
New year, new roster. It’s the return of Robby Fabbri to the Detroit lineup after offseason surgery kept him sidelined. Based on yesterday’s practice, Fabbri appears to be taking Adam Erne’s spot on the third line, as he skated with Tyler Bertuzzi (still “about a week” away) and Filip Zadina (who?).
In case you forgot since this happened all the way back in 2022 (hahahaha get it?), Detroit’s looking to start a winning streak after yet another come-from-behind win. Three goals in a short span on a New Years’ Eve victory over the Senators have us all in a slightly better mood.
On the other end of the ice, the Wings have their third game against New Jersey. We won the first on the road and then lost the rematch later in October by a 6-2 score, so we’re one behind them on goal differential in the head-to-head.
Jersey was on fire in November and then fell off last month, going 4-7-2 during that span. Overall they’re just 2-6-2 in their last ten games, but despite all this, they hold 49 points and 2nd in the Metropolitan Division, in which they have the best goal differential at +27. I lost track of whether fans are sorry or not for the Fire Ruff still, but I’m sure the TNT bozos tonight will tell us.
All the numbers say the Devils are an actually-good team. Their expected share of goals for according to Natural Stat Trick is second only to the Hurricanes. Their road record is way better than their home record (13-2-1).