The Detroit Red Wings are coming in off a tough loss to the Boston Bruins on Sunday night, 5-3, while the Sharks are coming in off a loss on Sunday night, 3-1 to the Colorado Avalanche.
Detroit Red Wings (17-16-4, 38 Points) vs. San Jose Sharks (9-25-3, 21 Points)
When: Tuesday, January 2
Time: 10:30 p.m. ET
Where: SAP Center at San Jose (San Jose, CA)
TV: Bally Sports Detroit
Scoring Leaders
Detroit Red Wings
Points: Alex DeBrincat – 38
Goals: Alex DeBrincat – 17
Assists: Alex DeBrincat – 21
San Jose Sharks
Points: Tomas Hertl – 28
Goals: Tomas Hertl – 13
Assists: Mikael Granlund – 20
Expected Line Combinations
Detroit Red Wings
David Perron – Dylan Larkin – Lucas Raymond
Alex DeBrincat – J.T. Compher – Patrick Kane
Christian Fischer – Andrew Copp – Michael Rasmussen
Robby Fabbri – Joe Veleno – Daniel Sprong
Jake Walman – Moritz Seider
Ben Chiarot – Olli Maatta
Shayne Gostisbehere – Justin Holl
San Jose Sharks
William Eklund – Tomas Hertl – Filip Zadina
Anthony Duclair – Mikael Granlund – Fabian Zetterlund
Mike Hoffman – Jack Studnicka – Luke Kunin
Justin Bailey – Ryan Carpenter – Alexander Barabanov
Mario Ferraro – Ty Emberson
Henry Thrun – Jan Rutta
Nikita Okhotyuk – Calen Addison
By The Numbers:
League Ranking
Detroit Red Wings
PP%: 21.5 (14)
PK%: 80.5 (14)
GF P/G: 3.54 (5)
GA P/G: 3.46 (27)
Faceoff %: 49.5 (18)
San Jose Sharks
PP%: 19.4 (19)
PK%: 74.2 (28)
GF P/G: 2.03 (32)
GA P/G: 4.05 (32)
Faceoff %: 50.7 (11)
Red Wings Player to Watch: Michael Rasmussen
Rasmussen this season has played in 37 games and has 15 points on seven goals and eight assists. He also has three shorthanded points this season on a goal and two assists. In his last three games he has one point coming on an assist.
Rasmussen’s Line Assignments
Rasmussen will play on the third line with Andrew Copp and David Perron. Rasmussen does not play on the power play.
Rasmussen’s career vs. San Jose
In his career, Rasmussen has faced the Sharks six times and has recorded six points, coming on three goals and three assists. Against the Sharks earlier this season, he had two goals in the Red Wings overtime loss.
Between The Pipes
Detroit: Alex Lyon (4-4-0, 2.48 GAA)
Lyon got the start against the Bruins and gave up three goals on 22 shots in the 5-3 loss. He has never faced San Jose in his career.
San Jose: Kaapo Kahkonen (5-10-1, 3.51 GAA)
Kahkonen’s last start came on Sunday against Colorado, as he took the loss, giving up two goals on 32 shots. In his career against Detroit, he is 2-0-0 in two games, and this season, he got the win coming in relief, stopping ten of the 11 shots he faced.
Wrap Up
Despite losing, the Red Wings are coming off one of their best games of the season and will now hit the West Coast for three games. The December struggle hit again; last year, they went 4-6-2, and this year, they went 5-9-1, but now it’s January, and Detroit needs to start hitting its stride. It starts tonight against the Sharks, who beat the Red Wings 6-5 in overtime on December 7th. Since then, the Sharks have gone 1-8-1 and have lost eight straight. The Red Wings need to capitalize on the struggling Sharks and take a much-needed two points; if they can finish this trip and return home with at least four points, it’ll be considered a success. Ideally, coming home with six points would be beneficial, but four would be huge as the schedule will get difficult this coming month; you have to win the games against the bad teams, especially tonight.
In their last ten games against San Jose, the Red Wings are 5-2-3 and have outscored them 37-33 in those ten games. The Red Wings lost their matchup earlier this season 6-5 in overtime.
ITR 31: Let Them Fight – Inside The Rink
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