Red Wings at Senators preview

RED WINGS (20-25-7) at SENATORS (19-27-5)
7 p.m. ET; CITY, TVAS, FS-D+, NHL.TV

The Red Wings are 4-2-0 in their past six games after going 2-10-3 in their previous 15.
Each team is playing the second half of a back-to-back; the Red Wings won 3-2 in overtime against the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Senators lost 5-3 to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday.
Goalie Craig Anderson will start for the Senators; he is 0-3-0 with an .886 save percentage in his past three starts.
Ottawa will try to avoid its fourth straight loss after going 4-1-0 in its previous five games.

Players to watch

Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist has eight points (two goals, six assists) in his past six games.
Senators forward Matt Duchene has 11 points (six goals, five assists) in his past nine games.

They said it

"Even when we weren't getting results, guys were playing well. We were kind of shooting ourselves in the foot, and kind of said 'enough is enough.' So, the last two games have been very gratifying." -- Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard
"It's not a normal back-to-back where you're gassed because you've been playing a bunch of games. So, I think [Saturday] we'll be better and should be back to what we can do." -- Senators forward Matt Duchene

Red Wings projected lineup

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

Senators projected lineup

Brady Tkachuk -- Colin White -- Mark Stone
Ryan Dzingel -- Matt Duchene -- Bobby Ryan
Nicholas Paul -- Chris Tierney -- Rudolfs Balcers
Zack Smith -- Jean-Gabriel Pageau
Thomas Chabot -- Dylan DeMelo
Max Lajoie -- Cody Ceci
Mark Borowiecki -- Christian Jaros
Ben Harpur
Craig Anderson
Anders Nilsson
Scratched: Magnus Paajarvi
Injured: Mike Condon (hip), Mikkel Boedker (undisclosed)

Status report

Larkin will be a game-time decision; he left the game during overtime on Friday with an upper-body injury. … The Senators recalled Balcers from Belleville of the American Hockey League. … Senators coach Guy Boucher said he could dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen.

Stat pack

Helm will play his 600th NHL game. … Stone has three points (two goals, one assist) in his past seven games after having eight points (four goals, four assists) in his previous seven games.