Jonathan Ericsson (shoulder) is out for a second straight game, so Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill opted to put his defense pairings in a blender prior to Tuesday’s game at Joe Louis Arena against the New Jersey Devils.
Blashill experimented with a Niklas Kronwall-Danny DeKeyser duo during Sunday’s 4-2 win over the Calgary Flames and again during Monday’s practice and will go with that as his No. 1 pairing. Brendan Smith and Mike Green will team as a second pairing, while the third pairing of Alexey Marchenko and Jakub Kindl is the only twosome that will remain intact from Sunday’s game.
“We weren’t getting the same play from our D like we’ve had, so we thought we’d make that switch for a little bit,… Blashill explained. “We had talked about DK and Kronner together. Kronner has spent most of his career matched up against the other team’s best players. DK, night in and night out has been one of our best defenders so we thought we’d pair them together.
“We thought they played real well against (Calgary’s Johnny) Gaudreau line once we did it.…
On paper, the Green-Smith tandem might look like it has the potential to be the defensive equivalent of dynamite exploding, since both are offensive-minded sorts who like the join the rush, but Blashill isn’t a traditionalist who believes you must part a skilled defender with a stay at home type.
“I’ve never really worried about that,… Blashill said. “I’ve never been a guy who said ‘you’ve got to had a defensive guy with an offensive guy. I’ve never been a guy who’s necessarily worried about that.
“I think it’s a matter of reading off each other. To be honest, I think the most important guy in those situations usually is your F3, your forward. Rarely do you have an issue where both D are caught. The guy that has to cover for the D if he is caught is going to be a forward. If both D are up then two forwards have to cover but that doesn’t happen very often.…
The forward lines remain the same from Sunday and the only change to the lineup from the 19 who performed against the Flames sees Jimmy Howard get the start in goal in place of Petr Mrazek.
Miller Skates Injured forward Drew Miller joined his teammates on the ice for Tuesday’s morning skate, the first time he’s skated with the group since suffering a fractured jaw Dec. 3 when checked by Arizona Coyotes defenseman Klas Dahlbeck.
Miller was uncertain whether he’d join the Wings on their three-game post-Christmas road trip, but sounded like he was leaning toward staying in Michigan and continuing to skate.
“I’ve skated twice now and felt all right with it, so I think I’ll continue to skate and try to get myself back in shape as best I can,… said Miller, who feels fortunate that his injury wasn’t worse.
“I actually got lucky, the way it broke was not at the hinge points,… Miller explained. “It wasn’t wired shut. I was able to have a soft diet, so losing weight … it wasn’t like a normal broken jaw where guys are wired shut for 3-4 weeks.
“The surgery was able to stabilize it with plates. I’ve got a little bit of metal in my mouth from the brackets they put on. The first couple of days I had rubber bands on to limit the movement, so I get those out today. It’ll be nice to get the metal fully out of my mouth and at least feeling normal for Christmas inside my mouth.…
His eating habits have been required to change somewhat, but not drastically.
“I’m pretty much back to eating normal,… Miller said. “I still can’t crunch on anything real hard, but you get pretty creative with food and find ways around it. I can’t be chewing on a steak and putting that hard pressure on the jaw. Right now I eat chicken, I’ve just got to cut it up in smaller bites and not really crunch down on it.
“I’ve got to chew it up a little bit and swallow.…
Miller also made it clear he doesn’t blame Dahlbeck for the injury.
“I saw the replay,… Miller said. “It was a big hit but I put most of it on myself. I put myself in a tough position. I thought he would take the fake and go down the wall and try to hit me and he came back the other way and hit me and I came back the other way and he was still there, so it’s the game of hockey and it happened and now I’m just concentrating on getting healthy and moving on.…
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