Red Wings at Devils preview

RED WINGS (8-9-2) AT DEVILS (8-8-1)
1 p.m. ET; MSG+, FS-D, NHL.TV

Hischier will miss his third straight game with an upper-body injury. Vatanen left in the second period of a 3-0 win at the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday with an undisclosed injury and has been placed on injured reserve.
Goalie Keith Kinkaid is expected to make his third straight start for the Devils, who look for their third consecutive win after going 1-6-0 on a seven-game road trip.
Goalie Jonathan Bernier will start for the Red Wings, who will try to win for the fifth time in six games.
Inclement weather along the East Coast on Thursday forced Detroit to travel Friday; the Red Wings flew from Ottawa to Albany, New York, and from Albany to White Plains, New York, before busing to Newark.

Players to watch

Red Wings center Dylan Larkin has 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in his past nine games.
Devils center Travis Zajac has six points (four goals, two assists) in his past six games.

They said it

"It's bothersome that you have to kind of grind through a day of travel today, but people do this all the time. It will not in any way negate us from playing great hockey." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
"We know Detroit is going to come in, work and have good structure, but our game wasn't where we wanted it to be when we last played them (a 4-3 loss on Nov. 1). We've started to get back to winning 1-on-1 battles, being more detailed and a few players have become more comfortable in making plays, so we can keep rounding out our depth and scoring." -- Devils forward Blake Coleman

Red Wings projected lineup

Darren Helm -- Dylan Larkin -- Anthony Mantha
Gustav Nyquist -- Frans Nielsen -- Andreas Athanasiou
Justin Abdelkader -- Luke Glendening -- Tyler Bertuzzi
Martin Frk -- Jacob de la Rose -- Michael Rasmussen
Trevor Daley -- Mike Green
Niklas Kronwall -- Dennis Cholowski
Danny DeKeyser -- Nick Jensen
Jonathan Bernier
Jimmy Howard
Scratched: Luke Witkowski, Wade Megan
Injured: Evgeny Svechnikov (knee surgery), Jonathan Ericsson (lower body), Thomas Vanek (lower body)

Devils projected lineup

Taylor Hall -- Travis Zajac -- Kyle Palmieri
Marcus Johansson -- Pavel Zacha -- Jesper Bratt
Blake Coleman -- Brett Seney -- Joey Anderson
Miles Wood -- Jean-Sebastien Dea -- Stefan Noesen
Andy Greene -- Damon Severson
Egor Yakovlev -- Mirco Mueller
Will Butcher -- Ben Lovejoy
Keith Kinkaid
Cory Schneider
Scratched: Kurtis Gabriel , Eric Gryba
Injured: Steven Santini (jaw), Nico Hischier (upper body), Brian Boyle (upper body)

Status report

De la Rose returns after missing three games with an upper-body injury. ... Gryba was recalled from Binghamton of the American Hockey League.

Stats pack

Athanasiou has six points (three goals, three assists) in his past four games. ... Hall has four points (two goals, two assists) in his past two games. ... Severson has four points (one goal, three assists) in his past three games.