Panthers at Red Wings preview

PANTHERS (17-17-5) at RED WINGS (16-16-7)
7:30 p.m. ET; FS-D, FS-F, NHL.TV

Florida's scheduled game at the Boston Bruins on Thursday was postponed due to the winter storm that hit the East coast, and the Panthers, 5-1-0 in their past six games after going 2-4-3 in their previous nine games, could not fly to Detroit until Friday morning.
Goaltender James Reimer sat out the third period of a 5-1 loss at the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday with neck soreness, but is expected to make his 13th straight start. He is 6-3-1 with 18 goals allowed and two shutouts in his past 10 starts.
The Red Wings look to extend their winning streak to a season-long four games after going 2-4-2 in their previous eight games. Goaltender Jimmy Howard, expected to start, has allowed four goals in three straight victories.

Players to watch

Panthers forward Vincent Trocheck has 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in his past 14 games, and leads Florida with 37 points (15 goals, 22 assists) in 39 games.
Red Wings forward Andreas Athanasiou has three goals in his past three games. He scored six seconds into 3-on-3 overtime, which tied an NHL record, in Detroit's 2-1 win against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday.

They said it

"It was a freak play. I was stretched out falling forward and the two guys crashing the crease ran into me. I just tweaked the neck a little, that's all." -- Panthers goaltender James Reimer on his injury
"I'm sure Florida's travel issues have been tricky, but they didn't have to play last night, so I'm expecting them to have a ton of energy that we will have to match." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill

Panthers projected lineup

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

Red Wings projected lineup

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

Status report

The Red Wings are expected to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen, as they have done several times in recent games. The plan allows Blashill to give extra shifts to his top forwards, especially Athanasiou and Larkin.

Stat pack

Reimer has held opponents to two goals or fewer in five of his past six starts. … Zetterberg has 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in his past 10 games.