After snagging defeat from the jaws of victory with a third period meltdown in their season opener, all eyes will be on #65 as the Erik Karlsson is hopeful to play tonight despite still wearing the powder blue no contact jersey at practice on Friday.

The news is not overwhelmingly good for Karlsson or Johnny Oduya, the latter of whom left Thursday's game with a lower body injury, as Ben Harpur was recalled from Belleville last night and will be here for the morning skate. Or maybe Harpur will replace Cody Ceci, who struggled mightily against Washington trying to fill his shutdown role of Alex Oveckin. While that latter scenario might be the preferred one it is more wishful thinking at this point.

The Red Wings come in after opening their new Little Caesar's arena with a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Wild, led by Mike Green's 4 assist effort.

The projected lineup for the Wings:

Tatar - Zetterberg - Nyquist
Mantha - Larkin - Frk
Abdelkader - Nielsen - Helm
Booth - Sheahan - Glendening

Dekeyser - Daley
Ericsson - Green
Ouellet - Jensen

Jimmy Howard played the opener ahead of Petr Mrazek, and earned the win so I would imagine he will get the call again.

Ottawa would like to the the same effort and result from the line of Mark Stone, Derick Brassard and Bobby Ryan while a better outing for the Mike Hoffman - Kyle Turris - Zach Smith line, a group that struggled a bit on Thursday and could be shuffled already if Friday's skate is any indication.

While it is hopeful, even leaning towards likely, that Karlsson will be able to play, one player who will make his NHL debut is 18 year old Alex Formenton. The winger is slated to be in the lineup, apparently replacing Logan Brown as the lineup at Friday's practice looked like

Stone - Brassard - Ryan
Dzingel - Turris - Smith
Hoffman - Pageau - Pyatt
Formenton - Thompson - Burrows

The defensive pairings are anyone's guess with the uncertainty around Karlsson and Oduya.

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