On October 8, 2018, the Detroit Red Wings (0-1-1) are on the road, looking for their first win, taking on the red-hot Anaheim Ducks (2-0-0).
The Detroit Red Wings are on the road, searching for their first win of the season against the undefeated Anaheim Ducks on October 8th. Although the Wings are 0-1-1 on the season thus far, they have shown glimpses of excellence and grit in their last two games.
The Wings are coming into the Honda Center after losing to the Los Angeles Kings on October 7th. During their game against the Kings, their growing stars blossomed and were not afraid to get in the dirty areas.
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There were four positive things stuck out from the game against the Kings last night. The first positive was both Mantha and Larkin, who both signed extensions in the offseason, scored against the Kings last night. The second positive was that Nick Jensen showed some grit and dropped the gloves with Kings’ defenseman Jake Muzzin, sticking up for not only for himself but the rest of the Wings’ roster.
Next, the third positive was young defenseman Dennis Cholowski, who tallied two assists on the night. Finally, the fourth positive was the Wings accumulated a hefty 36 shots on net.
Going into their game against the Ducks tonight at 9 CT, the Red Wings need to be physical, win face-offs and step up defensively. The last time the Wings played the Ducks in Anaheim, the Wings took one off the chin losing 4-2 but played very physical.
When they last played Anaheim on March 16, 2018, they had 30 shots (Anaheim had 36), won 44 percent of the face-offs, went scoreless on five power plays, had three fighting majors and registered 21 hits.
Tensions ran high the last time these two played as the number of hits sky-rocketed and the gloves were off most of the night as Witkowski, Abdelkader and Mantha all were involved in fighting majors.
The Ducks are very solid offensively and like to get chippy, that is why the Wings must stay disciplined, especially on the blue line. With a lot of the Wings’ defensemen out due to injuries, the young defensemen filling in must make sure not to get to anxious and forget their roles.
For tonight expect solid performances from Danny DeKeyser, Tyler Bertuzzi and Dylan Larkin. All three of these men tend to perform well against the Ducks, especially on the road. DeKeyser is going to be the largest veteran presence on the blue-line tonight if Daley is still out, therefore I fully anticipate him to live up to the expectations at hand.
Bertuzzi will provide a huge presence in front of the net creating havoc and opportunities for the Wings to score. And Larkin will do what Larkin does best by creating offensive opportunities and winning face-offs.