Red Wings at Flames preview

RED WINGS (3-3-0) at FLAMES (3-3-1)
9 p.m. ET; SN360, FS-D, NHL.TV

Rittich had 21 saves in a 3-1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday. He is 3-2-1 with a 2.80 goals-against average and .912 save percentage.
Detroit defenseman Danny DeKeyser and forward Adam Erne will be game-time decisions. Each has an upper-body injury. DeKeyser did not play in a 5-1 loss against the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday. Erne played 11:58. Defenseman Patrik Nemeth, who did not practice Wednesday because of illness, is expected to play.
Jimmy Howard will start in goal for the Red Wings, who have been outscored 10-3 in consecutive losses and are 1-3-0 after winning their first two games.

Players to watch

Red Wings forward Dylan Larkin has seven points (two goals, five assists) in six games to start the season.
Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau has seven points (three goals, four assists) in seven games to start the season.

They said it

"We've seen our power play has been good, our penalty kill has been good, our goaltending has been good when we've been a good team. We need all those things to win. We've [gotten] away from that the past couple games and I expect to get back to that tonight and play a fast game and play our game tonight." -- Red Wings forward Dylan Larkin
"I think we're starting to play to our identity now, playing a fast game. We're transitioning the puck quick. We're not giving up too many chances 5-on-5, which is the way we want to play. It's the way we played last year and we had success. I think we're kind of hitting that right stride now. We just have to keep it going." -- Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin

Red Wings projected lineup

Tyler Bertuzzi -- Dylan Larkin -- Anthony Mantha
Luke Glendening -- Frans Nielsen -- Andreas Athanasiou
Taro Hirose -- Valtteri Filppula -- Christoffer Ehn
Darren Helm -- Jacob de la Rose -- Justin Abdelkader
Trevor Daley -- Filip Hronek
Patrik Nemeth -- Mike Green
Dennis Cholowski -- Alex Biega
Jimmy Howard
Jonathan Bernier
Scratched :Madison Bowey
Injured :Jonathan Ericsson (upper body), Danny DeKeyser (upper body), Adam Erne (upper body)

Flames projected lineup

Johnny Gaudreau -- Sean Monahan -- Elias Lindholm
Matthew Tkachuk -- Mikael Backlund -- Michael Frolik
Andrew Mangiapane -- Derek Ryan -- Sam Bennett
Milan Lucic -- Mark Jankowski -- Austin Czarnik
Mark Giordano -- TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin -- Travis Hamonic
Oliver Kylington -- Rasmus Andersson
David Rittich
Cam Talbot
Scratched :Tobias Rieder, Michael Stone
Injured :None

Status report

Detroit held an optional morning skate. … Backlund will play after taking a maintenance day and not practicing Wednesday.

Stat pack

Mantha has a Red Wings-best nine points (six goals, three assists) in Detroit's first six games. Bertuzzi has seven points (three goals, four assists). … Lindholm leads the Flames with four goals in seven games.