Red Wings at Avalanche preview

RED WINGS (12-33-4) at AVALANCHE (27-15-6)
3 p.m. ET; NHLN, ALT, FS-D, NHL.TV

The Avalanche are coming off a 5-3 win against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, have gone 2-0-2 in the first four of a five-game homestand, and are 4-2-2 in the past eight games overall. Coach Jared Bednar didn't announce his starting goalie, but Philipp Grubauer has started three straight games.
The Red Wings are 0-3-1 in their past four games. They lost 4-1 to the Florida Panthers on Saturday and have gone 5-21-3 in the past 29 games.

Players to watch

Red Wings center Dylan Larkin has eight points (three goals, five assists) in his past nine games.
Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon has 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in his past nine games.

They said it

"We're just almost trying too hard. We're trying to switch things up when sometimes it's good to just keep it simple -- stick with the guys, stick with the set-ups, stick with everything and just simplify it." -- Red Wings forward Dylan Larkin
"You look at how valuable the points are. These two points are just as valuable as the two points [Saturday]. It was a big, emotional win and we want to make sure there's no letdown, that we come out and finish off this homestand right."-- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Red Wings projected lineup

Tyler Bertuzzi -- Dylan Larkin -- Luke Glendening
Filip Zadina -- Valtteri Filppula -- Robby Fabbri
Darren Helm -- Frans Nielsen -- Adam Erne
Justin Abdelkader -- Christoffer Ehn -- Givani Smith
Patrik Nemeth -- Mike Green
Trevor Daley -- Filip Hronek
Madison Bowey -- Alex Biega
Jimmy Howard
Calvin Pickard
Scratched:Brendan Perlini
Injured: Andreas Athanasiou (lower body), Jonathan Bernier (lower body), Jonathan Ericsson (face), Danny DeKeyser (back), Anthony Mantha (upper body)

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Valeri Nichushkin -- Nazem Kadri -- Andre Burakovsky
Matt Calvert -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- J.T. Compher
Matt Nieto -- Tyson Jost -- Vladislav Kamenev
Ryan Graves -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Nikita Zadorov - Ian Cole
Philipp Grubauer
Pavel Francouz
Scratched:Mark Barberio
Injured:Joonas Donskoi (concussion protocol), Colin Wilson (lower body)

Status report

Filppula missed the last two periods Saturday with a lower-body injury, but Blashill said it was minor and Filppula could be available Monday. … Donskoi, a right wing, will miss his fifth straight game since getting injured Jan. 7 against the New York Rangers. He took part in his first contact practice Sunday, but Bednar wants him to take the 10-day break to rest.

Stat pack

The Red Wings have been outscored 19-5 in their past four games. … Detroit has gone 3-for-41 on power plays in their past 12 games. … Burakovsky has six points (one goal, five assists) in his past five games. … Makar needs two points to tie Bruce Bell (37) for the Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques record for a rookie defenseman. Bell set the record in 1984-85 with the Nordiques.