Red Wings vs. Flyers: Perron Returns

Game Facts

Who: Red Wings vs. Philadelphia

Where: Little Caesars Arena

When: 7 p.m.

TV/Radio: Bally Sports/97.1 FM

Records: Red Wings 15-13-4, Flyers 18-11-3 .

What to Know

David Perron is back from his suspension, although his appeal continues. He can’t get the games back, of course, but he could get some game checks back if the league opts to cut the number of games on appeal. ‘It’s tough, especially with kind of the way it happened,” he said this morning. “The way everything went down, that’s why I’m just looking forward to getting back honestly and help any way I can. I know I can make a difference toward the energy in the room, on the ice, on the bench. Just keep the guys kind of looking ahead. Bringing momentum to the team in different ways. I’m gonna try to do that tonight.”

The Red Wings are in the midst of a 1-6-1 slump. “We still got to mature as a team,” coach Derek Lalonde said. We knew this was going to be a tough stretch. It got compounded with an egregious amount of top guys out. But we still didn’t handle it well. Everyone in the entire league is going to go through this and the teams that start to funnel themselves towards the top handle these situations. We have two more opportunities to do that.”

Flyers Look Familiar to Lalonde

The Flyers come in as a feel-good story after a strong start. “When we had our little run there, 6-of-7, that’s how we looked,” Lalonde said. “Not a lot of risk in their game. They defend properly. They were very comfortable in that 1-0 game the other day.  They’re playing in good structure, they’re playing with confidence. It’ll be on us tonight to be a little harder in some areas.”

Alex Lyon didn’t skate today and won’t return until after Christmas. James Reimer will start in goal tonight, but Lalonde wouldn’t say who starts tomorrow night in New Jersey. “We’ve love to sit here and play a really good defensive game, see where the volume is on James, and kind of go from there,” he said. “I think it would be really tough to ask any goalie to play three (games) in four (days) in three different cities where he is in his career.”