Red Wings: Filip Zadina gets the call with Anthony Mantha injured

In a season that’s been filled with disappointment, Detroit Red Wings fans have something to look forward to tonight.

Last night served as yet another typical Detroit Red Wings performance in 2019–a blowout loss.  The Wings were in New Jersey taking on the Devils and perhaps considered it as a walkthrough.  A matchup of two of the worst teams in the entire NHL, both entering the night with just seven wins on the season.

Perhaps we’d be in for a loose, exciting game due to the fact that neither team plays well in their own zone, allowing for plenty of offensive opportunities.  That’s precisely what happened for the New Jersey Devils, but the Red Wings failed to get the memo. NJ beat Detroit with ease to the tune of 5-1.

In the game, Detroit, unfortunately, lost Anthony Mantha due to a lower-body injury.  Following last night’s game head coach, Jeff Blashill mentioned Mantha will definitely be out tonight against the Hurricanes and could be out for ‘some time.’  Not great news for the teams’ top goal scorer.  The Red Wings are operating with just one line that their opponents need to try and contain.

Detroit’s top line of Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Anthony Mantha are by far the only scoring threat each night.  Andreas Athanasiou is a very streaky scorer. After a slow start, he’s starting to find his way in ’19 finally.  Athanasiou should play a more significant role now with Mantha sidelined.

Losing Mantha means the team needed to call up a scoring threat from Grand Rapids, especially playing the Hurricanes tonight who scored 7 goals on Detroit earlier this season. That’s exactly what the organization did today.

We all know how the Wings head coach Jeff Blashill operates, we’ll likely see Darren Helm elevated to the top line with Larkin and Bertuzzi leaving Zadina buried on the fourth line playing alongside Christoffer Ehn and a struggling Brendan Perlini.

It’s another year of stubbornness behind the bench.  Taro Hirose isn’t amounting to what I expected he’d be, but he’s still a better option than Perlini or Ehn.  The excuse from the coaching staff for scratching Hirose over the others always revolves around being able to kill penalties.  The Wings have a plethora of forwards who can work on the PK, leaving that excuse mute.

With the Grand Rapids Griffins, Filip Zadina has scored 7 goals, added 6 assists totaling 13 points throughout 19 contests on the season.  Last year in his first professional season with the Griffins, he recorded 35 points, including 16 goals in 59 games.