Red Wings Open Denver Road Trip With Tarasov in Net

Detroit opens a five-game road trip tonight in Denver, and the early read on this one is that the Red Wings have a goaltending edge they need to protect. The Red Wings sit at 7-7-3 and rank 20th in the league. Colorado is 9-6-2, holds a wild-card spot in the Western Conference and sits 13th in the overall standings. Both teams are close enough to the playoff picture that a few points over the next week could shift how the season looks.

Game Details

Puck drop is 9 p.m. ET. Detroit's broadcast is on DSN and 97.1 FM. The Red Wings are the road side for the opening stretch, so expect a Western Conference game that will test how their young group handles a long trip.

Detroit: Tarasov Deserves the Net

John Gibson looks close to returning from the injury that ended his last appearance, but my read is that Daniil Tarasov has earned back-to-back starts. Among goalies with at least five starts, Tarasov's 1.79 goals-against average ties Igor Shesterkin for the third-lowest in the NHL, behind Linus Ullmark (1.33) and Pyotr Kochetkov (1.64). His .929 save percentage is the second-highest in the league. That's the kind of run that makes a coach think twice about rotating him out.

The Red Wings have also been good at closing games. They're 4-1-1 when tied after 40 minutes, and Todd McLellan's group ranks fourth in the NHL with 22 third-period goals. Put those two things together and you get a team that doesn't need a perfect first two periods to win, as long as it stays in the game long enough for its late push to matter.

Offence: Rookies Carry Some of the Load

Detroit leads the NHL in rookie scoring with 23 points through 17 games, and that's a meaningful number for a club that has had trouble generating goals. The franchise has led the league in rookie scoring twice since 1967-68, in 1990-91 and 2021-22. The 2021-22 group produced 128 points in 82 games, a reminder that a strong rookie class can keep a roster afloat when the veterans are struggling.

Carter Mazur is one of the reasons for that depth. He has three points (1-2-3) in his last four games, and he looks more settled with the puck. On the other side, Alex DeBrincat has one goal in his past eight games. The Red Wings have struggled to score when he goes a couple of games without finding the net, so his return to form is one of the more important storylines for this trip.

Injury Watch

Marco Kasper and Mason Appleton are both dealing with upper-body injuries, and both could be back during this road trip. Gibson is listed with an undisclosed injury and appears ready to return to the lineup. Albert Johansson, also undisclosed, remains on the injury list. Detroit's depth will get tested if any of those returns slip, so the timing of the next few practices will be worth watching.

Detroit Projected Lines and Pairings

Forwards: Alex DeBrincat, Emmitt Finnie, Victor Arvidsson; Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, Andrew Copp, Lucas Raymond; Michael Rasmussen, J.T. Compher, John Leonard; Carter Mazur, Sheldon Dries, Keegan Kolesar.

Defence: Ben Chiarot and Moritz Seider; Andreas Englund and Anton Johansson; William Wallinder and Justin Faulk.

Goalies: Daniil Tarasov starts, with Michal Postava as the backup. Jacob Bernard-Docker and Nate Danielson are the scratches.

Colorado: Searching for a Reset

The Avalanche have dropped two in a row, including a 3-2 overtime loss at home to Nashville on Thursday. That's a tough result for a team that expects to win games like that. Colorado scores an average of four goals per game, well ahead of Detroit's 2.76, but it allows 3.26 per game, and that gap is where a visiting team can find a way in.

Special teams could also decide this one. Colorado's power play is converting at 20 percent, a step behind Detroit's 22.8 percent. If the Red Wings can keep the Avalanche from building momentum on the man advantage, they'll put their goal-scoring pressure on a defence that has been leaking chances.

Colorado Injuries

Josh Manson is out with an ankle injury and is expected to miss about two months. Zachary L'Heureux is out with an undisclosed injury until the end of the month. Losing Manson takes a steady defender off the back end, and that changes how the Avalanche pair their blueliners.

Colorado Projected Lines and Pairings

Forwards: Artturi Lehkonen, Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas; Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri, Nicolas Roy; Jaden Schwartz, Brock Nelson, T.J. Hughes; Parker Kelly, Fedor Svechkov, Logan O'Connor.

Defence: Devon Toews and Cale Makar; Brett Kulak and Noah Juulsen; Sam Malinski and Brent Burns.

Goalies: MacKenzie Blackwood or Scott Wedgewood. Raphael Lavoie and Viliam Kmec are the subs.

What to Watch

The most important question tonight is whether Detroit's goaltending and third-period resilience hold up against a Colorado team that scores at a high rate. The Red Wings don't need to outscore the Avalanche, but they do need to limit the chances that come from Colorado's top lines. If Tarasov keeps his numbers near where they are now, Detroit has a real chance to start this trip with a result that matters in the standings. Watch the Mazur and DeBrincat lines, too. Their production will tell you whether the offence can keep up with the goaltending.