Red Wings at Canucks preview

Demko will play at least the next two games, Tuesday and at the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, after No. 1 goalie Jacob Markstrom was granted a leave of absence to attend to a family matter. Markstrom is expected back by the weekend for the Canucks, who have won back-to-back games at home after opening the season with consecutive road losses.

Center Frans Nielsen will return for the Red Wings after missing the past three games with an upper-body injury. Detroit is 1-2-0 in its past three games starting the season with two wins.

Players to watch

Detroit forward Anthony Mantha has eight points (six goals, two assists) in the first five games.

Forward J.T. Miller leads the Canucks with five points (one goal, four assists) in four games.

They said it

"It's going to be a little weird playing against guys I have been so close with the past five years." -- Red Wings defenseman Alex Biega, who will make his Detroit debut against the Canucks, who traded him to Detroit on Oct. 7

"Good teams in the League don't just win when one goalie is in the net, they win when both are in the net. We have a lot of belief in him." -- Canucks coach Travis Green on goalie Thatcher Demko

Red Wings projected lineup

Tyler Bertuzzi -- Dylan Larkin -- Anthony Mantha

Luke Glendening -- Andreas Athanasiou -- Taro Hirose

Valtteri Filppula -- Frans Nielsen -- Adam Erne

Darren Helm -- Jacob de la Rose -- Justin Abdelkader

Patrik Nemeth -- Mike Green

Danny DeKeyser -- Filip Hronek

Dennis Cholowski -- Alex Biega

Jonathan Bernier

Jimmy Howard

Scratched: Madison Bowey, Christoffer Ehn

Injured: Jonathan Ericsson (undisclosed), Trevor Daley (hip flexor)

Canucks projected lineup

J.T. Miller -- Elias Pettersson -- Brock Boeser

Tanner Pearson -- Bo Horvat -- Micheal Ferland

Josh Leivo -- Brandon Sutter -- Jake Virtanen

Tim Schaller -- Jay Beagle -- Tyler Motte

Alexander Edler -- Tyler Myers

Quinn Hughes -- Christopher Tanev

Jordie Benn -- Troy Stecher

Thatcher Demko

Zane McIntyre

Scratched: Loui Eriksson, Adam Gaudette, Jacob Markstrom, Ashton Sautner, Oscar Fantenberg

Injured: Antoine Roussel (knee)

Status report

With Nielsen's return, the Red Wings sent forward Evgeny Svechnikov to Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League. Daley and Ericsson are practicing, and Daley could return during the three-game road trip, which concludes with games against the Calgary Flames on Thursday and the Edmonton Oilers on Friday. … Motte will play his first game of the season after sustaining an upper-body injury during the preseason. Sautner was called up from Utica of the AHL on Tuesday but the Canucks didn't announce a corresponding move to create roster room.

Stat pack

Larkin has six points (one goal, five assists) and had a point in four of the Red Wings' first five games. … Horvat is two goals from 100 in NHL.