Red Wings at Flames
Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill was doing his best to keep an open mind despite seeing his team's sputtering offense play a role in its third straight loss. After mustering just one goal in each of the first two contests of its four-game road trip, Detroit looks to snap a three-game skid on Friday when it visits the reeling Calgary Flames.
"It's easy to get frustrated in results, whether it's a power play or the game, but we can't let frustration cloud our mind," Blashill told MLive.com. "We got to make sure we look at what do we got to get better at, what did we improve at. I thought we improved at lots of things, but there's things we got to get better at for sure." Calgary can echo a similar sentiment after losing four consecutive contests overall and four straight at home. Karri Ramo yielded four goals in an eventual 6-2 setback to Washington on Tuesday before being sent to the minors two days later.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, FSN Detroit, RSN (Calgary)
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (3-3-0): Detroit failed on six power-play opportunities versus Edmonton and its last 13 overall in the last three-plus games. "The power play has to be better, especially on the road," captain Henrik Zetterberg told MLive.com. "When we get power-play opportunities there, we have to take advantage of it and we haven't done that." Tomas Tatar netted his team's lone tally in a 3-1 setback to Edmonton on Wednesday, but has yet to score a goal in six career meetings with Calgary.
ABOUT THE FLAMES (1-5-0): Calgary's goaltending carousel now turns to Jonas Hiller, who has been confirmed to start Friday's tilt but has received little guarantee of anything else. "(The demotion of Ramo) shows they believe in me and want me to be the guy right now — it might be different in a few days, few weeks, whatever," Hiller told the Calgary Herald. Joni Ortio, who has yet to play this season, serves as the backup.
OVERTIME
1. Calgary RW Jiri Hudler has been held without a point in his last three contests, but torched his former team with a pair of goals in the Flames' 5-2 win over Detroit on March 6.
2. Red Wings LW Justin Abdelkader leads the team with four goals, but has failed to record a point in each of his last four games.
3. Flames LW Johnny Gaudreau notched a pair of assists versus the Capitals and has a team-leading six on the season.