The road warriors are home and ready to see if they can translate their success away from Joe Louis Arena into a more consistent brand of hockey on home ice.
Fresh off a 5-1 road trip, the Detroit Red Wings play host to the Philadelphia Flyers Sunday and hope to bring the same effective game to home ice that worked for them while out of town.
“I think we battled hard together as a team,… right-winger Gustav Nyquist said. “We were in a lot of tight games.
“At home it seems like we’ve lost a lot of leads in the third and teams have taken us into overtime or it’s pretty much a coin flip who’s going to win.
“We really battled hard for each other on the road and managed to squeeze out a couple of wins. We had two big games where we won late against San Jose and Anaheim and then obviously coming back in Arizona that was big.
“We’ve have big third periods on the road here and hopefully we can do the same at home.…
Six times the Wings have squandered third-period leads at home this season, but during this trip, the Wings only gave up one third-period advantage, in the opener of the journey Jan. 2 at Buffalo. Detroit came back to win that game 4-3.
On the flip side, the Wings rallied for a 3-2 overtime win at Arizona and scored third-period goals to snap ties and post 2-1 wins at San Jose and Anaheim.
“We had good success for sure on this trip so hopefully we can bring that same game home and grind out some wins,… Nyquist said.
The Lineup Joakim Andersson will gave way to Teemu Pulkkinen as Detroit’s only alteration from the team that won at Arizona.
Rookie Dylan Larkin will pick up additional penalty killoing ice time in Andersson’s absence.
“We have Glennie (Luke Glendening), we've been using Abby (Justin Abdelkader), Helmer (Darren Helm), (Riley) Sheahan and Larkin,… Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “We have guys.
“Larks killed more last game than he has. We're trying to get him more involved in it. So we feel like we've got guys that are available for the penalty kill. So we have five killers available to us, which we think is enough.…
Marchenko Missing Defenseman Alexey Marchenko, who will be a healthy scratch for his third straight game, was not on the ice for Sunday’s morning skate and curiously, his equipment was not in his dressing room stall.
“He wasn't available for pre-game skate,… was all Blashill would say. “He's not sick.…
Blashill indicated that Marchenko would be back on the ice Tuesday, when the Wings resume practice after a scheduled off day Monday.
Blashill also indicated it was nothing in Marchenko’s play that got him benched.
“Marchy's played really well,… Blashill said. “So I don't think it's a matter of more - I think we got seven real good D. Lots go into those decisions as to how we decide the six that play. Sometimes guys play their way out of the lineup. Marchy didn't play his way out of the lineup. He played really well.
“We had a guy become available to us who's been a great player for us over the last two years in (Kyle) Quincey and we made the decision to go with the six we have. We think we have seven real good NHL D available to us.
“He happens to be the odd man out right now. He'll see plenty of time here in the real near future.…
Two For Two Patrick Kane’s hat trick Friday against the Toronto Maple Leafs was the first of his NHL career. He’d posted 26 two-goal games before that, which had left him third on the NHL’s all-time list for the most two-goal games without ever recording a hat trick.
The all-time leader on this list is Detroit center Pavel Datsyuk, who has recorded 38 two-goal games but never been able to net that third goal to complete the hat trick.
Second in career two-goal games without a hat trick in NHL history is another former Wing, Hall of Fame defenseman Larry Murphy, who posted 28 of them.
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