The Game
The Detroit Red Wings seek their fifth straight win when they visit the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.
Goaltender Jimmy Howard will start for the Red Wings, who have outscored their opponents 16-8 in the past four games. Howard is 5-0-0 with a .932 save percentage in his past five games.
Senators forward Drake Batherson will make his NHL debut. He has 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists) in 14 games with Belleville of the American Hockey League this season.
Goaltender Craig Anderson will start for the Senators, who are 3-6-2 in their past 11 games.
Players to watch
Red Wings forward Andreas Athanasiou has six points (three goals, three assists) during a three-game, multi-point streak.
Senators forward Mark Stone has 12 points (three goals, nine assists) in his past seven games.
They said it
"[The Senators] are fifth in the league in scoring. I think they lead the league in [defensemen] scoring. [Thomas] Chabot looks like he's playing at a really, really high level. [Maxime] Lajoie, I don't know great, but offensively he looks really good. They're a team that has done a good job at getting pucks to the slot area and lots of goals in the net front, so we're going to have to do a great job with our slot coverage, a great job getting out of our end and do everything we can to make them defend as much as we can." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
"When I woke up this morning, it finally hit me that I'm going to play in my first NHL game tonight. A lot of my family are flying in today and my parents arrived last night, so it's going to be pretty special for all of them, for sure." -- Senators forward Drake Batherson
Red Wings projected lineup
Gustav Nyquist -- Frans Nielsen -- Andreas Athanasiou
Jimmy Howard
Scratched: Luke Witkowski
Injured: Evgeny Svechnikov (knee surgery), Jonathan Ericsson (lower body), Thomas Vanek (lower body), Jacob de la Rose (upper body)
Senators projected lineup
Mikkel Boedker -- Matt Duchene -- Drake Batherson
Brady Tkachuk -- Colin White -- Mark Stone
Craig Anderson
Scratched: Christian Jaros, Max McCormick
Injured: Jean-Gabriel Pageau (Achilles), Ben Harpur (undisclosed)
Status report
Smith will play for the first time since sustaining a facial fracture on Oct. 26 in a 6-3 loss against the Colorado Avalanche.
Stat pack
The Red Wings are 7-1-0 and have scored 32 goals in their past eight games. … The Senators have allowed at least four goals in nine of their past 11 games.
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