Islanders coach Jack Capuano is hopeful his defensemen will continue to contribute on the score sheet.
"Whether they score or not, it's where we need to be offensively," Capuano said. "It tells me that we're getting up in the play and we're getting chances. It hasn't changed in five years (since I've been coach), or whatever it's been. It's part of our game plan. Hopefully it'll be contagious with some other guys.
"I know it's a defense-first mentality, but just the way that we want to play is when the opportunity presents itself, we want them up on the rush, involved in the cycles, just to create a little bit more offensive zone time for us. I thought we did a real good job really the last couple of weeks with our D being involved."
Detroit, which dropped a 4-3 decision to the Anaheim Ducks at Joe Louis Arena on Saturday, is also playing its final game before the All-Star break. This will be the Red Wings' first visit to Barclays Center. They have won six of seven road games this month.
"I think the biggest thing we want to get across this morning was we have to have a singular focus to come on here and win the hockey game tonight and knowing that it's going to be extremely tough, knowing that the Islanders are real good," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "I don't think we played nearly our best in the last game. We've got to come in here real determined to do it right for 60 minutes and that gives you, really, your only chance to win. Certainly it doesn't guarantee success."
Here are the projected lineups:
RED WINGS
Dylan Larkin -- Henrik Zetterberg -- Justin Abdelkader
Brad Richards -- Pavel Datsyuk -- Darren Helm
Gustav Nyquist -- Riley Sheahan -- Tomas Tatar
Tomas Jurco -- Luke Glendening -- Teemu Pulkkinen
Kyle Quincey -- Danny DeKeyser
Brendan Smith -- Mike Green
Jonathan Ericsson -- Alexey Marchenko
Petr Mrazek
Jimmy Howard
Injured: Niklas Kronwall (knee), Drew Miller (knee), Johan Franzen (concussion)
Scratched: Eric Tangradi, Nick Jensen
ISLANDERS
Mikhail Grabovski -- John Tavares -- Ryan Strome
Nikolay Kulemin -- Frans Nielsen -- Kyle Okposo
Anders Lee -- Brock Nelson -- Josh Bailey
Matt Martin -- Casey Cizikas -- Cal Clutterbuck
Nick Leddy -- Brian Strait
Calvin de Haan -- Travis Hamonic
Thomas Hickey -- Marek Zidlicky
Injured: Johnny Boychuk (upper body)
Scratched: Steve Bernier, Scott Mayfield, J-F Berube
Jaroslav Halak
Thomas Greiss
Status report: The Red Wings recalled Tangradi and Jensen and sent center Joakim Andersson to Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League on Sunday. Tangradi and Jensen could play with several players being game-time decisions. "We had a number of guys that had a little -- what I would call bumps and bruises -- that might withhold them from the game, but we won't know for sure probably until tonight," Blashill said. ... Boychuk skated Monday morning but will miss his ninth straight game. He's expected to return shortly after the All-Star break. "Just to see him out there, for me it's just a breath of fresh air I'm sure for him to be around the guys," Capuano said. "For us, knowing that his time is not too far away ... now you just want to make sure that you condition yourself and that you get healthy, and then we'll re-evaluate him after the break. We've got an additional week here and there's a good chance after the break at some point, hopefully sooner than later, that he'll be back in our lineup."
Who's hot: Mrazek is 6-1-1 with a 1.24 goals-against average and a .955 save percentage this month. DeKeyser has two goals and an assist in his past five games; Green has two assists in his past three. ... Tavares has a goal and three assists in the past four games. Leddy has a three-game point streak (two goals, one assist).
