Red Wings at Panthers preview

RED WINGS (4-6-1) at PANTHERS (4-5-0)
7 p.m. ET; FS-F, FS-D, NHL.TV

The Red Wings are 0-5-1 since opening the season 4-1-0. Four of the six losses have been by one goal, including a 3-2 defeat at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.
The Panthers are coming off an 8-3 victory against the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday in the opener of a five-game homestand. Florida is 2-1-0 in its past three games following a 2-4-0 start.

Players to watch

Red Wings forward Andreas Athanasiou will be playing in his second game of the season after signing a one-year, $1.3875 million contract on Monday. He had three shots in 11:38 of ice time against Tampa Bay.
Panthers center Aleksander Barkov has seven points (three goals, four assists) in a four-game point streak. He had a goal and two assists against Anaheim.

They said it

"I've played with the lines a lot; I'm done playing with lines. The lines are the lines, the guys on those lines have got to step up and make plays. We've got guys that have been elite in this league, step up and be elite." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
"When your team is scoring a lot of goals, you want to be part of that, too. … I just learned that a bad shot is better than a bad pass, so just try to put pucks to the net and guys are going there, I'm going there and try to score on those second and third chances." -- Panthers center Aleksander Barkov

Red Wings projected lineup

Tomas Tatar -- Henrik Zetterberg -- Gustav Nyquist
Andreas Athanasiou -- Dylan Larkin -- Anthony Mantha
Darren Helm -- Frans Nielsen -- Justin Abdelkader
Martin Frk -- Luke Glendening -- Scott Wilson
Niklas Kronwall -- Mike Green
Jonathan Ericsson -- Trevor Daley
Xavier Ouellet -- Nick Jensen
Jimmy Howard
Petr Mrazek
Scratched: David Booth, Luke Witkowski
Injured: Danny DeKeyser (lower body)

Panthers projected lineup

Jonathan Huberdeau -- Aleksander Barkov -- Evgenii Dadonov
Jamie McGinn -- Vincent Trocheck -- Radim Vrbata
Chase Balisy -- Derek MacKenzie -- Nick Bjugstad
Micheal Haley -- Denis Malgin -- Owen Tippett
Keith Yandle -- Aaron Ekblad
Ian McCoshen -- Mark Pysyk
Mike Matheson -- Alexander Petrovic
James Reimer
Antti Niemi
Scratched: MacKenzie Weegar
Injured:Colton Sceviour (upper body), Jared McCann (lower body), Connor Brickley (upper body), Roberto Luongo (hand)

Status report

The Red Wings did not hold a morning skate. … DeKeyser, who has missed the past nine games, said after practice Friday he did not anticipate being able to play Saturday. … Balisy will make his NHL debut after being recalled from Springfield of the American Hockey League on Friday. … Luongo did some on-ice work before the Panthers' optional skate. Coach Bob Boughner said he hopes Luongo can return by the middle of next week.

Stat pack

Florida has four players averaging at least one point per game: Trocheck, Huberdeau, Barkov and Dadonov.