Red Wings at Wild preview

RED WINGS (12-34-4) at WILD (22-21-6)
8 p.m. ET; NBCSN

Detroit is 0-4-1 and has been outscored 25-8 in its current skid. The Red Wings are 3-12-1 in their past 16 games and 5-22-3 in their past 30.
Center Mikko Koivu returns for the Wild after missing two games with an illness. Minnesota is 3-6-1 in its past 10 games after going 10-4-1 in its previous 15.

Players to watch

Red Wings center Dylan Larkin has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in his past 10 games.
Wild forward Zach Parise, who leads Minnesota with 19 goals, has scored five in a four-game goal streak.

They said it

"[Minnesota's] got a good D-corps. … So it's a real hard team to create a ton against. They've got a real big team up front. Certainly, with Koivu back, it's a big strong group that grind you down low as well." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
"I think when teams [like Detroit] are at a [desperate] point, they're always dangerous. I think coming into the game, at the start of the game will be very important. As a team we need to be patient. I know we haven't lost five in a row but we're in the same boat. We can't afford to take any nights off. We need two points desperately." -- Wild center Mikko Koivu

Red Wings projected lineup

Tyler Bertuzzi -- Dylan Larkin -- Filip Zadina
Brendan Perlini -- Valtteri Filppula -- Robby Fabbri
Darren Helm -- Luke Glendening -- Adam Erne
Givani Smith -- Christoffer Ehn -- Justin Abdelkader
Patrik Nemeth -- Filip Hronek
Trevor Daley -- Madison Bowey
Dennis Cholowski
-- Alex Biega
Jimmy Howard
Calvin Pickard
Scratched: None
Injured:Frans Nielsen (upper body), Mike Green (finger) Andreas Athanasiou (lower body), Jonathan Bernier (lower body), Jonathan Ericsson (face), Danny DeKeyser (back), Anthony Mantha (upper body)

Wild projected lineup

Zach Parise -- Eric Staal -- Mats Zuccarello
Jason Zucker -- Victor Rask -- Kevin Fiala
Marcus Foligno -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Luke Kunin
Jordan Greenway -- Mikko Koivu -- Ryan Hartman
Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin -- Matt Dumba
Carson Soucy -- Greg Pateryn
Devan Dubnyk
Alex Stalock
Scratched:Nick Seeler, Ryan Donato
Injured:Brad Hunt (illness)

Status report

Cholowski was recalled from Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League on Wednesday. … Green, a defenseman, is expected to miss a couple of weeks, Blashill said Tuesday. … Nielsen, a forward, could return after the NHL-mandated five-day break.

Stat pack

Howard is 0-13-2 with a 4.61 goals-against average and .868 save percentage in his past 15 games. … Koivu is two assists from 500 in the NHL. …The Wild have scored a power-play goal in four straight games and have 10 in their past nine.