Blues at Red Wings preview

BLUES (8-11-3) at RED WINGS (10-11-3)
7 p.m. ET; NBCSN

The forward had missed the past six games with an upper-body injury. The Blues went 2-4-0 without him and allowed 21 goals, including five to Winnipeg Jets forward Patrik Laine in an 8-4 loss Saturday.
The Red Wings will try to end a three-game losing streak (0-2-1). Prior to that they had won nine of 11 (9-2-0).

Players to watch

Blues forward Ryan O'Reilly has three points (two goals, one assist) in his past two games after scoring two goals in his previous five.
Red Wings forward Anthony Mantha has five points (three goals, two assists) in his past two games.

They said it

"It has been really tough to sit and watch the guys struggle like this. I've been able to skate almost every day but it felt like I was never making enough progress. Now I'm where I need to be and I can't wait to be back out there." -- Blues forward Alexander Steen
"We need to have an unreal urgency to get back into the win column, because I know (Blues coach Craig Berube) has them playing that way. That's a very good team, but things are so close in this league that it doesn't take much to pile up some losses. In a couple weeks they could be right back in the mix." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill

Blues projected lineup

Robby Fabbri -- Brayden Schenn -- Robert Thomas
Alexander Steen -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Vladimir Tarasenko
David Perron -- Tyler Bozak -- Patrick Maroon
Zach Sanford -- Ivan Barbashev -- Oskar Sundqvist
Vince Dunn -- Alex Pietrangelo
Joel Edmundson -- Colton Parayko
Jay Bouwmeester -- Jordan Schmaltz
Chad Johnson
Jake Allen
Scratched: Nikita Soshnikov, Sammy Blais
Injured:Jaden Schwartz (hand), Carl Gunnarsson (upper body), Robert Bortuzzo (lower body)

Red Wings projected lineup

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

Status report

Each team held an optional morning skate, although the Blues had most of their regulars on the ice.

Stat pack

Tarasenko has two points (one goal, one assist) in his past two games after he had two assists in his previous six games. … Howard is 6-1-1 with a .930 save percentage in his past nine starts but was pulled after allowing three goals on 16 shots in the first period of a 7-5 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday.