Red Wings at Jets preview

RED WINGS (26-27-10) at JETS (37-17-9)
8 p.m. ET; TSN3, FS-D+, NHL.TV

The Jets, 5-2-0 in their past seven games, are in second place in the Central, six points behind the first-place Nashville Predators, who are idle Friday. Winnipeg, which has outscored its opponents 30-16 in its past six games, will be without defenseman Toby Enstrom, who will miss his second straight game with a lower-body injury. He is day to day.
Defenseman Mike Green, who missed seven games with a neck injury, will return for the Red Wings, 2-1-0 in their past three games after going 1-3-1 in their previous five games.
Goaltender Jimmy Howard is expected to start for Detroit, which is seven points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

Players to watch

Red Wings forward Andreas Athanasiou has five points (three goals, two assists) in his past five games.
Jets forward Blake Wheeler has 15 points (four goals, 11 assists) in a nine-game point streak.

They said it

"We've done a good job all year of picking ourselves back up when we've been kicked a little bit. We've had some real tough losses. We've been in some really tight games. Haven't won enough of them, that's why we sit where we sit, but I think all year, we've continued to get back up, and I expect us to get back up tonight."-- Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
"They're going to come out hard, we're going to come out hard. Playoff hockey is starting. It has started. No games are going to be easy, they haven't been, that's not going to change. They're going to get harder and harder, and we're ready for that." -- Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers

Red Wings projected lineup

Anthony Mantha -- Henrik Zetterberg -- Gustav Nyquist
Tyler Bertuzzi -- Dylan Larkin -- Andreas Athanasiou
Darren Helm -- Frans Nielsen -- Justin Abdelkader
Martin Frk -- Luke Glendening -- David Booth
Jonathan Ericsson -- Trevor Daley
Niklas Kronwall -- Mike Green
Danny DeKeyser -- Nick Jensen
Jimmy Howard
Jared Coreau
Scratched: Luke Witkowski
Injured: None

Jets projected lineup

Kyle Connor -- Mark Scheifele -- Blake Wheeler
Mathieu Perreault -- Bryan Little -- Jack Roslovic
Nikolaj Ehlers -- Paul Stastny -- Patrik Laine
Andrew Copp -- Matt Hendricks -- Joel Armia
Josh Morrissey -- Dustin Byfuglien
Dmitry Kulikov -- Tyler Myers
Joe Morrow -- Ben Chiarot
Connor Hellebuyck
Michael Hutchinson
Scratched:Marko Dano
Injured:Shawn Matthias (upper body), Steve Mason (concussion), Jacob Trouba (lower body), Adam Lowry (upper body), Brandon Tanev (upper body), Toby Enstrom (lower body)

Status report

Mason will play for Manitoba of the American Hockey League in a conditioning assignment this weekend.

Stat pack

Laine has 11 points (six goals, five assists) in a six-game point streak. … Scheifele has 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in his past eight games.