Rangers at Red Wings preview
Lundqvist starts in goal for New York; Detroit seeks first win in eight games
by Dave Hogg / NHL.com Independent Correspondent
RANGERS (24-21-4) at RED WINGS (12-36-4)
7 p.m. ET; FS-D, MSG 2, NHL.TV
The Game
Henrik Lundqvist will play for the first time since Jan. 11 and the New York Rangers will try for a home-and-home sweep of the Detroit Red Wings on consecutive nights when they play at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday.
Lundqvist hasn't played since a 5-2 loss at the St. Louis Blues three weeks ago. He made two starts in New York's 11 games during January, when the Rangers went with three goalies. The 37-year-old is 9-10-3 with a 3.18 goals-against average and .907 save percentage in 25 games (23 starts). Lundqvist backed up Igor Shesterkin in New York's 4-2 win at Madison Square Garden on Friday.
Red Wings center Valtteri Filppula will play his 1,000th NHL game. He's in his second stint with Detroit, which is 0-6-1 in its past seven games and has been outscored 33-12 during that span.
Goalie Jonathan Bernier, who missed seven games with a lower-body injury, was activated off injured reserve and is expected to start after Jimmy Howard made 35 saves Friday in his 17th straight game without a victory (0-15-2).
Players to watch
Rangers forward Artemi Panarin has 25 points (seven goals, 18 assists) in his past 12 games. He's fifth in the NHL in scoring (70 points; 27 goals, 43 assists) and in plus-minus rating (plus-23).
Red Wings forward Robby Fabbri had a goal and an against the Rangers.
They said it
"Either way, if we would have won those last two [games before the break] or not, I think it's important to come back after a break like that and feel good about yourself. I thought we played a good game today and did enough to win and focus on tomorrow." -- Rangers center Mika Zibanejad
"I've had some great, great players I've watched play their 1,000th game, and it's just a tremendous amount of respect that you have as a coach. This is an extraordinarily hard league and it's getting harder and harder for guys as they get into their 30s to still be able to be effective." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill on Filppula reaching 1,000 NHL games
Rangers projected lineup
Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Pavel Buchnevich
Artemi Panarin -- Ryan Strome -- Jesper Fast
Brendan Lemieux -- Filip Chytil -- Kaapo Kakko
Brett Howden -- Greg McKegg -- Brendan Smith
Ryan Lindgren -- Jacob Trouba
Marc Staal -- Tony DeAngelo
Brady Skjei -- Adam Fox
Henrik Lundqvist
Igor Shesterkin
Scratched: Micheal Haley, Alexandar Georgiev
Injured: None
Red Wings projected lineup
Tyler Bertuzzi -- Dylan Larkin -- Filip Zadina
Brendan Perlini -- Valtteri Filppula -- Robby Fabbri
Darren Helm -- Frans Nielsen -- Adam Erne
Justin Abdelkader -- Luke Glendening -- Givani Smith
Patrik Nemeth -- Filip Hronek
Jonathan Ericsson -- Alex Biega
Madison Bowey -- Dennis Cholowski
Jonathan Bernier
Jimmy Howard
Scratched: Christoffer Ehn, Trevor Daley
Injured: Danny DeKeyser (back), Anthony Mantha (upper body), Andreas Athanasiou (lower body), Mike Green (finger)
Status report
Neither team held a morning skate. … Calvin Pickard was sent to Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League to make room for Bernier. ... Georgiev, New York's third goalie, is expected to be a healthy scratch for the second straight game.
Stat pack
The Rangers and Red Wings last played a home-and-home series on back-to-back nights on March 26-27, 2000. Detroit won both games by a combined score of 14-2. … Bernier is the only Red Wings goalie to win a game since Oct. 29, when Howard was in goal for a 3-1 win against the Edmonton Oilers. Howard, Pickard and Eric Comrie have gone 0-19-2 in their past 21 decisions.