Red Wings hope to improve power play against Hurricanes (Jan 20, 2018)
DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings will try to get their power play in gear and the Carolina Hurricanes are coming off their league-mandated five-day break when the teams meet at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday.
Detroit (18-19-7) has only clicked on two of 33 power plays in the last 10 games to fall to18th in the league at 18.7 percent.
"I said in the beginning of the year we need elite specialty teams, and I thought for a portion of the year we had that and right now we don't," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said on mlive.com. "If we want to win games before the All-Star break, we need elite specialty teams."
The Red Wings have changed both of their power-play units.
They have moved speedster forward Andreas Athanasiou and right winger Martin Frk, with his powerful right-hand shot from the point, to center and captain Henrik Zetterberg's unit with right winger Anthony Mantha as the net-front presence and defenseman Niklas Kronwall at the other point.
And on the other unit, right winger Gustav Nyquist and left winger Tomas Tatar (point) are with center Dylan Larkin with forward Tyler Bertuzzi and the net-front presence and defenseman Mike Green at the other point.
That setup gives both units speed, and a right-hand shot at one of the points.
Bertuzzi has played well and been productive since being called up from AHL Grand Rapids.
He has a goal and seven assists in his past nine games. He has four points in his last two games and assisted on both goals in Detroit's 4-2 loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday at LCA.
He was on a line with Zetterberg and Nyquist before injuries to forwards Justin Abdelkkader and Darren Helm forced Blashill to shuffle the lines and Bertuzzi is now with Larkin and Athanasiou.
"The one thing with Bert is, against a team that defends well, that protects the ice well, that makes it hard to get to their net, you need guys like him and that's why he's always been a good playoff performer," Blashill said.
Bertuzzi has 23 goals and 39 points in 42 AHL playoff games with Grand Rapids and was the AHL playoff MVP last season.
"I'm just getting used to it every game. Playing with Larks and AA, it's pretty easy on me," Bertuzzi said. "AA, he doesn't cheat, but he's smart when he blows the zone, and if I can just get it off the glass, they're going to have a footrace."
Bertuzzi is the nephew of former NHL player and the Red Wings' Todd Bertuzzi.
The Hurricanes (20-17-8) are coming off their break without their leading scorer.
In their last game, a 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames in Raleigh, second-year left winger Sebastian Aho suffered a concussion and a lower-body injury on a heavy hit by Calgary defenseman Mark Giordano.
Aho, who has 16 goals and 37 points, is out indefinitely.
The statuses of defenseman Brett Pesce (upper body) and center Derek Ryan (upper body) for Saturday are unknown. They both missed the two games before the break.
Losing to Calgary in the last game before their break left a bad taste in the Hurricanes' mouth.
"It's never good to go into the break with a loss," center Jordan Staal told the Raleigh News & Observer. "We have to, unfortunately, dwell on that for a little bit. We've got to get away, get your rest when you can, then regroup."
