Mantha, Athanasiou return to lead the Wings against the Habs.

Red Wings expecting big returns.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Mantha, Athanasiou return to lead the Wings against the Habs.
Justin Cooper/CSM/Zuma

The Little Caesars Arena crew were extra busy on Thursday night, cleaning up the giant piano that fell off of the collective backs of the Red Wings! 

They finally won their first game in literally a calendar month, a 5-2 triumph over the Winnipeg Jets for their first win in 13 games. And after a day of celebrating, the team is now turning their attention to their next opponent. 

It will be an Original 6 matchup tonight at Belle Centre in Montreal as the Red Wings go up against the bleu, blanc et rouge of the Montreal Canadiens. 

For the Red Wings, they'll be boosted with the expected returns of forwards Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou. Mantha leads the Red Wings with 12 goals despite having been absent from the lineup since November 23 with an injury; they went 1-7 without him. And while Athanasiou hasn't matched his offensive output of last season, his raw speed and playmaking abilities make him a danger to any opponent. 

Mantha skated in practice on a line with Valtteri Filppula and Filip Zadina. Meanwhile, Dylan Larkin is expected to be in the lineup despite an illness. Recently waived defenseman Madison Bowey was recalled from the Grand Rapids Griffins to potentially replace injured defenseman Jonathan Ericsson, while Patrick Nemeth (illness) is expected to play as well. 

Here are tonight's projected line combinations: 

Bertuzzi - Larkin - Fabbri
Mantha - Filppula - Zadina
Athanasiou - Glendening - Helm
Erne - Nielsen - Abdelkader

Nemeth - Green
Hornek - Daley
Beiga - Bowey

Bernier (starting)
Comrie 

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