DETROIT – If ever there were a good time to face the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, tonight might be it for the desperate Detroit Red Wings during a nationally televised game (5:30, TNT).
The Panthers are missing their best player (Matthew Tkachuk), their captain (Aleksander Barkov) and a key defenseman (Dmitry Kulikov) due to injuries and top D-man Aaron Ekblad is suspended.
Plus, the Red Wings likely will face backup Vitek Vanecek, who’s been brutal (4-12-4, 3.72 goals-against average, .883 save percentage) instead of Sergei Bobrovsky, who’s dominated them during his career (27-7-2, 1.88 GAA, .935 save percentage, five shutouts).
The Panthers are playing on back-to-back days after losing 3-0 at Ottawa Saturday, have lost four in a row (0-3-1) and are 3-6-1 in their past 10.
It seems like an excellent opportunity for the Red Wings to end a six-game home losing streak vs. the Panthers, who they haven’t defeated at Little Caesars Arena since Feb. 20, 2021.
Cam Talbot will make his fourth start in row for Detroit (35-33-7, 77 points), which is six points behind Montreal for the final wild card spot. The Red Wings have seven games remaining, the Canadiens six.
“You play all year to get near the finish line, and when you’re close, you should be really excited about hunting somebody down,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “Sometimes it’s easier to be the hunter than the hunted. We’d like to change that, though, as years go on. But right now, we’re the hunter. And about three weeks ago, we talked about running the marathon, and we’re nearing the finish line, and we don’t have to catch the individual that’s going to end up first. We just have to catch the runner in front of us, which we’re capable of doing. And we did that (Friday vs. Carolina). Now we got to catch a few more.”
It’ll be the first time the Red Wings have faced the Panthers since they acquired longtime Boston forward Brad Marchand and defenseman Seth Jones.
They’ll need Talbot to perform like he has the past four games (2-1-1, 1.91 GAA, .938 save percentage).
“I’ve been feeling good for a while now,” Talbot said. “Just going out and trying to give us a chance to win at this time of year. You need goaltending and just trying to keep us in games until we can find that big goal.”
Florida (44-28-4, 92 points) has clinched a playoff spot but is still battling for positioning and home-ice advantage in the first round. The Panthers are third in the Atlantic Division, two points behind Tampa Bay and four ahead of Ottawa.
