PREVIEW: Battling injuries to key forwards, Red Wings lean on organizational depth Monday at Dallas

DALLAS -- Playing the first half of a back-to-back road swing on Monday night, the Detroit Red Wings will lean on their organizational depth against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.

Puck drop between Detroit (14-8-4; 32 points) and Dallas (15-8-3; 33 points) is set for 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT, with TV broadcast coverage on Bally Sports Detroit. Ken Kal and Paul Woods will have the call on the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit).

Ahead of Monday’s morning skate, the Red Wings placed three forwards – captain Dylan Larkin (retroactive to Saturday), J.T. Compher (retroactive to Dec. 5) and Klim Kostin (retroactive to Dec. 7) - on injured reserve.

“I challenge anyone in the league to lose those type of players and still be competitive,” Detroit head coach Derek Lalonde said. “I think we still have a competitive lineup, and our first crack at it is tonight.”

To fill the missing spots, Zach Aston-Reese, Jonatan Berggren and Austin Czarnik were recalled from the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins under emergency conditions.

Aston-Reese signed a one-year, two-way contract with Detroit on Oct. 8. After playing 307 career NHL games with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Anaheim Ducks and Toronto Maple Leafs, he’s yet to make his Red Wings debut.

“Full trust in Czarnik,” Lalonde said. “He can play in any situation for us and understands our structure. Same thing with Bergy, he’s played a lot for us. And Aston-Reese is a very experienced player, so full confidence in all three of those guys.”Larkin will be out at least a week with an upper-body injury he sustained in Saturday’s 5-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators. He left the game at 13:50 of the first period following a hit from Senators forward Mathieu Joseph.

“I think we’ll know more as time goes on,” Lalonde said about Larkin. “To see him down unconscious, what goes through your head and obviously his past history, to see him go off the ice with some assistance and not through the stretcher was a positive.”

Lalonde said he spoke with Larkin for about 20 minutes on Sunday night, adding the 27-year-old forward was in good spirits.

When asked about Compher, who wore a non-contact jersey during Monday’s morning skate, Lalonde said the 28-year-old forward is also dealing with an upper-body injury.

“It got to a point where (Compher is) probably not available tonight or tomorrow, and we need to field a team,” Lalonde said. “He’s potentially available for us on Thursday (against the Carolina Hurricanes). By putting him on IR, it freed up a roster spot to field a whole team tonight.”

As for David Perron, he will have an in-person hearing with the NHL Department of Player Safety for cross-checking against Ottawa defenseman Artem Zub on Saturday, in retaliation to the hit on Larkin. Lalonde said he expects that hearing to take place in the coming days.

The Stars have lost three of their last four games, most recently falling to the defending Stanley Cup-champion Vegas Golden Knights, 6-1, on Saturday.

In addition to pacing the club in goals (11), Joe Pavelski (11-14—25) leads a quartet of Dallas players with 20 or more points this season, as Jason Robertson (8-16—24), Roope Hintz (10-12—22) and Matt Duchene (6-14—20) have each reached the threshold. In 19 starts this season, goalie Jake Oettinger has a 10-7-2 record with a 2.84 goals-against average and .905 save percentage.

“We got to get our stops quick,” Moritz Seider said about Detroit’s defensive strategy heading into Monday’s game. “We can’t let them have a big circle game. Try to avoid the top and once they reset it low, that’s when we got to stop the puck, find ways to break out and go on offense.”