The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a notebook article this afternoon, discussing the Red Wings’ relative luxury of having a (borderline) full lineup of players to utilize over the course of the team’s 3-game winning streak:
You can almost hear the coaching staff knocking on wood, but the Red Wings, heading into Thursday night’s game, essentially had a whole lineup.
Defenseman Troy Stecher is out with an undisclosed injury, but Stecher was alternating into the lineup, and hasn’t been a regular.
With Dylan Larkin returning from his family emergency, and Tyler Bertuzzi squarely into the lineup since there are no games in Canada (Bertuzzi is unvaccinated), the Red Wings can place personnel in the lineup where Blashill feels they’re most effective, and not have to slot players into roles that aren’t entirely comfortable or productive.
“When you are shorthanded you’re asking a lot of players at times to move up lineups and spots where they’re not ready for,” Blashill said. “When you have a full lineup, you can slot people into matchups where it allows them to be successful. It allows you to slot everyone in the right slots.”
Continued; the Red Wings play 6 more games over the course of the next 10 days, so the lineup has to stay healthy…
