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On the heels of a 4-3 road victory in Calgary last night, the Detroit Red Wings face the always difficult 3rd road game in 4 nights this evening as they face the tough luck Edmonton Oilers this evening at Rexall Place in Edmonton in the second half of the weekly Hockey Night in Canada doubleheader.
Tonight marks the long awaited return of
Darren Helm to the Red Wing lineup. Since sustaining a gruesome wrist injury in a playoff game against the Nashville Predators in April of 2012, Helm has played in 1 NHL contest in the past 18 months. After returning from rehab on his wrist, a mysterious back injury prevented Helm from playing all but one contest last season.
After a full summer off, Helm was skating at training camp in September when a groin issue arose, preventing him from playing in any preseason action. Aside from 2 AHL games a couple weeks ago with the Grand Rapids Griffins, Helm's skating has been limited to practice time. He will center the 4th line tonight between
Drew Miller and
Mikael Samuelsson, who draws into the lineup replacing
Patrick Eaves.
It goes without saying that a healthy and fully operational
Darren Helm would go a long way in making the Red Wings a much more complete hockey club. An ideal fit as the club's third line center given his speed, tenacity, ability to win face-offs and defensive play, Helm's return will definitely put a smile on Mike Babcock's face with the added depth down the middle of his hockey club.
In order to accommodate Helm's return and remain cap compliant, the Red Wings had to place D
Jonathan Ericsson on the long-term injury reserve. Nursing a shoulder injury, Ericsson was placed on the LTIR retroactive to Oct. 21, the day after he hurt the shoulder in Phoenix. He will not be eligible to return to the lineup until November 15th vs. Washington. As expected, the Red Wings continue to play the "LTIR game" to remain cap compliant. This move buys them yet another two weeks.
The Red Wings will give starter
Jimmy Howard the night off and allow
Petr Mrazek an opportunity to start in goal in place of the injured
Jonas Gustavsson (neck, day-to-day).
Johan Franzen is still not feeling 100% due to an unspecified illness and will sit out tonight's contest in the hopes of returning Monday against Winnipeg.
The difficult scheduling spot for Detroit is offset with the injuries piling up for the Oilers, already behind the "8" ball with a record of 3-9-2 through their opening 14 contests. Having been rested since Tuesday night's 4-0 home loss at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the expectation is we see a spirited effort from the Oilers tonight. However, it should be noted the Oilers are without the services of four regulars up front in
Taylor Hall,
David Perron,
Ryan Smyth and
Jesse Joensuu. In addition, rearguard
Justin Schultz is a game-time decision as he deals with a groin/rib issue.
Regular starting netminder
Devan Dubnyk has missed the past couple contest dealing with an ankle issue, allowing for
Richard Bachman to get the past two starts in goal for Edmonton. After standing on his head last weekend in Los Angeles to steal a point for Edmonton against the Kings, he allowed 4 goals on 26 shots against the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night. He will be in the pipes once again for the Oilers this evening.
Projected lineups:
DETROIT RED WINGS
Zetterberg - Datsyuk - Bertuzzi
Cleary - Weiss - Alfredsson
Tatar - Andersson - Abdelkader
Miller - Helm - Samuelsson
Kronwall - DeKeyser
Quincey - Smith
Kindl - Lashoff
Mrazek
(Howard)
EDMONTON OILERS
Ryan Jones - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Jordan Eberle
Nail Yakupov - Sam Gagner - Ales Hemsky
Ryan Hamilton - Boyd Gordon - Mark Arcobello
Luke Gazdic - Will Acton - Ben Eager
Anton Belov - Philip Larsen
Ladislav Smid - Jeff Petry
Andrew Ference - Nick Schultz
Richard Bachman
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