The Detroit Red Wings wrap up their Western road trip on Tuesday with one of their toughest matchups of the season against the Vegas Golden Knights. With star power across the ice including Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, Mark Stone, breakout winger Pavel Dorofeyev, and several others, Detroit will have a major challenge on its hands. The Red Wings will look to stay hot and build on their recent surge, having won four of their last five games, a stretch that began with their dramatic comeback from a 4-0 deficit to defeat the St. Louis Blues two weeks ago.
During that run, winger Alex DeBrincat has been one of the NHL’s hottest players, tallying four goals and four assists for eight points in five games. His strong play has also helped sophomore center Marco Kasper snap out of an early-season slump, highlighted by his two-goal performance against the LA Kings last Thursday. The duo will aim to keep their momentum going as they adjust to playing alongside Mason Appleton while veteran Patrick Kane remains sidelined.
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Lineup Storylines
It’s been impressive to see the Red Wings continue to edge their way out of tough spots and earn much needed wins. Their offense has done most of the heavy lifting with the defense struggling to keep the puck out of their net. Over their five-game hot streak, they’ve battled to stay on top of their goal differential with 18 goals scored but also 16 goals allowed. Their recent performances against the Blues and Sharks where they allowed just two goals need to be more consistent as it’s difficult to ask the offense to continually get four or five goals a night.
The loss of Patrick Kane hasn’t been evident just yet but as they are continue to battle their way through games, once the offense starts to cool down in certain areas, they’ll need a player like Kane that can come in and keep them in a game with clutch scoring. His current replacement in a guy like Mason Appleton, isn’t necessarily built to score goals but to be impactful in other areas of the ice.
Other players in the lineup have also started to slow down, putting more pressure on DeBrincat, captain Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond to continue producing. Veteran winger James van Riemsdyk was brought in for his sharp consistency at producing 40 or more points a season, yet so far he has just one goal and an assist. After four standout games, J.T. Compher is now without a point in five games despite being a 40-50 point player and Andrew Copp has gone 11 games without a goal.
The Red Wings will need a balanced attack on Tuesday if they hope to defeat a Golden Knights team that ranks among the league’s top seven offenses, averaging 3.55 goals per game. That number climbs even higher at home, where Vegas scores an impressive 4.60 goals per game. The Golden Knights have been one of the NHL’s toughest home teams, posting a 59-22-6 record with the fifth-best home offense since the start of the 2023-24 season, averaging 3.51 goals per game in that span.
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Vegas distributes its scoring as well as any team in the league, with Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner leading separate lines, while veteran Brandon Saad and former 43-goal scorer William Karlsson provide firepower deeper in the lineup. Colton Sissons and Keegan Kolesar anchor one of the NHL’s best fourth lines, giving the Golden Knights a dangerous scoring threat on every shift. Detroit’s defense will need to tighten up considerably after allowing 27 goals over its last seven games, the second-most in the league during that stretch.
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Player & Betting Trends (Presented By BetMGM)
DET ML (+) | VGK ML (-)
DET +1.5 (-) | VGK -1.5 (+)
O/U 6.0 Goals
The Red Wings and Golden Knights have squared off just 13 times with Detroit surprisingly holding the upper hand historically with a 7-6-0 record, including wins in three of their last five matchups. Vegas has struggled to maintain their home ice advantage in this matchup with just a 3-3-0 record in home matchups versus Detroit. These matchups have waivered from low- to high-scoring with just seven of their 13 matchups totaling six or more goals so we can’t pin down a trend for how this matchup will go.
Patrick Kane is someone the Red Wings would’ve loved to have in this spot as he performs well against the Golden Knights like his three-point performance in Detroit‘s last matchup versus Vegas where he was involved in all three of the Red Wings‘ goals in a 6-3 loss. They will instead turn to Dylan Larkin, who has also put up solid numbers versus the Golden Knights with a pair of goals and ten assists for 12 points over his 12 career games versus Vegas, including points in eight of their last ten matchups with three multi-point games.
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The Golden Knights will bring plenty of offensive firepower into this matchup, but one player the Red Wings won’t be thrilled to face again is a familiar name from their Atlantic Division days, Mitch Marner. The 28-year-old winger, formerly with the Toronto Maple Leafs, has been a consistent thorn in Detroit’s side, racking up 18 goals and 19 assists for 37 points in just 28 career games against them. That includes 11 multi-point performances and a current streak of five straight heading into Tuesday’s contest. Over his last 12 games versus the Red Wings alone, Marner has tallied 12 goals and 11 assists for 23 points, making him a player Detroit’s defense must key in on to avoid getting burned yet again.
Goalie Matchup:
Detroit: John Gibson Expected (Season: 4-3-0 record, 3.32 GAA, .875 SV% | VS VGK: 6-18-5 record, 3.37 GAA, .905 SV% in 30 Starts)
Vegas: Akira Schmid Expected (Season: 5-1-0 record, 2.73 GAA, .892 SV% | VS DET: 0-1-0 record, 5.00 GAA, .833 SV% in One Start)
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