Red Wings Lineup Changes Against Montreal

The Detroit Red Wings are playing an important game against the Montreal Canadiens tonight, and they have some lineup updates. Patrick Kane is out. There's no word on his condition, but he’s on a good run lately. He has three points in his last four games and 30 on the season. The Red Wings will miss him and look to make it up with other players.

Related: Canadiens: Red Wings Looking For Revenge

One player who will get more ice time for Detroit is Vladimir Tarasenko. At 33, he’s not the player he used to be. The Russian has six goals and 13 assists in 46 games. I haven’t seen much out of him. He’s averaging 1.6 shots per game this season, so I can see that increasing and the Canadiens should be ready for that.

Cam Talbot is starting in net. Talbot has excellent career numbers against the Canadiens; 8-3-1 with a 1.58 goals against average and a .941 save percentage. My feeling is this is a different Canadiens’ team so take these numbers with a grain of salt.

Detroit needs these points as bad as the Canadiens’ do and they are a better team at home. This should be an excellent game and it means a lot even in January. Having seen Detroit live recently, keeping them off the power play is a great strategy. They have a good one running at 28.4 percent and seventh best in the league. They can be beaten five-on-five. That’s one of the paths to victory besides forcing turnovers from the Red Wings blue line.