At the Rink: Red Wings at Kings

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Kyle Quincey will return to the Detroit Red Wings lineup Monday against the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center (10:30 p.m. ET; SNE, SNO, SNP, FS-D, FS-W).

Quincey has been out since Oct. 23 because of an injury to his right ankle. He had surgery on the ankle Nov. 14.

Red Wings (22-13-7) coach Jeff Blashill said Quincey would play but was not sure which defenseman would come out of the lineup, according to comments posted on the Red Wings' Twitter feed. Defenseman Jakub Kindl, who cleared waivers Sunday, was assigned to Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League.

Quincey has one goal and two assists in seven games while averaging 18:59 of ice time per game.

"From my perspective it's a good problem," Blashill said, according to the Detroit Free Press. "The one thing that I've talked about here is having depth within the organization in order to have long-term success. As tight as every team is here in the League, the ones that can sustain injuries, the ones that have depth in the organization, are the ones that can continue to maybe stay away from long stretches of playing bad hockey. … These will be difficult decisions but I think it's a positive that we are making decisions based on a number of what we think are real good NHL defensemen."

Blashill also said forward Drew Miller won't play Monday because of a lower-body injury sustained in a 2-1 defeat of the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday. It was Miller's second game back after missing a month because of a broken jaw. He was not at Staples Center on Monday for an optional morning skate.

Jimmy Howard is expected to start in goal for the Red Wings after Petr Mrazek started Sunday against the Ducks.

Detroit is 4-0-0 on its six-game trip, and all four are one-goal victories. It has scored the go-ahead goal in the final seven minutes or later three times in that span.

Center Nick Shore could return to the lineup for the Kings (26-12-3), who held their morning skate here at Toyota Sports Center. The Kings did not do line rushes, but Shore was off the ice with the regulars while left wing Michael Mersch and center Andy Andreoff stayed out for extra work with defenseman Jamie McBain. Shore has been scratched the previous two games since the Kings acquired center Vincent Lecavalier from the Philadelphia Flyers last week.

A big topic with the Kings lately is center Anze Kopitar, who has two goals and nine assists in his past eight games. Left wing Milan Lucic said he's happy that Kopitar is back on his line.

“You see when he has the puck … he's kind of in the zone where you feel like he's more of a threat when he's got that puck on his stick that he's going to make something happen," Lucic said. "That's been the way it's been for him since that Christmas break. It seems like he's having a lot of fun playing the way he has lately."

Here are the projected lineups:

RED WINGS

Gustav Nyquist - Henrik Zetterberg - Justin Abdelkader

Darren Helm - Pavel Datsyuk - Tomas Tatar

Brad Richards - Riley Sheahan - Dylan Larkin

Tomas Jurco - Luke Glendening - Joakim Andersson

Niklas Kronwall - Jonathan Ericsson

Kyle Quincey - Mike Green

Danny DeKeyser - Brendan Smith

Jimmy Howard

Petr Mrazek

Scratched: Alexey Marchenko

Injured: Drew Miller (lower body), Johan Franzen (concussion), Teemu Pulkkinen (shoulder)

KINGS

Milan Lucic - Anze Kopitar - Tyler Toffoli

Tanner Pearson - Jeff Carter - Marian Gaborik

Dwight King - Nick Shore - Dustin Brown

Trevor Lewis - Vincent Lecavalier - Jordan Nolan

Brayden McNabb - Drew Doughty

Jake Muzzin - Alec Martinez

Luke Schenn - Christian Ehrhoff

Jonathan Quick

Jhonas Enroth

Injured: Matt Greene (shoulder), Kyle Clifford (upper body)

Scratched: Michael Mersch, Andy Andreoff, Jamie McBain

Status report: Howard hasn't played since starting Dec. 29 against the Winnipeg Jets but he was pulled in the second period after allowing four goals on 14 shots. … Lecavalier could center the third line but it's unclear how the Kings' bottom-six forward group could be arranged. … Quick was off the ice first.

Who's hot: Larkin has one goal and four assists in his past five games. … Kopitar has points in 11 of his past 14 games. He has three goals and 12 assists in that span. … Quick is 6-0-1 with a 1.27 goals-against average, .954 save percentage and one shutout in his past seven games.