Detroit Red Wings win 3-2 win over Edmonton in OT

The Red Wings and Jimmy Howard will try to get back on the winning track against the Oilers and Taylor Hall.

(AP file photo)

EDMONTON, Alberta - After staying with the same lines for several games, Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock has juggled the combinations for tonight's game against the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place (9:30, Fox Sports Detroit)

The Red Wings (20-10-9), with a daunting road-heavy schedule the next two months, need to take advantage of a prime opportunity to pick up two points against the worst team in the NHL. The Oilers are 9-22-9 but are coming off a 5-2 win Sunday over the much-improved New York Islanders.

Stephen Weiss was moved up from the fourth line and will play alongside Pavel Datsyuk and Darren Helm.

"At the end of the day you got to get on the ice," Weiss said. "I haven't played a ton the last few games (less than 10 minutes in four of five games since returning from a shoulder injury), so it's tough to do much, really. In this league it's hard when you're playing 20 minutes to produce.

"I'm looking forward to the opportunity tonight to play with Pavel and play some more minutes and hopefully have a good game and that can snowball."

Helm moves back to the wing from center.

"I'm used to it. I can play wing or center, it doesn't matter," Helm said. "They're different challenges but not a whole lot different. You're still playing the game. We want to play in their zone. Defensively, wing's a little bit different but not much change."

Weiss, a center his entire career, has played almost exclusively on the wing this season.

"I like playing wing," Weiss said. "That's a little bit of an adjustment first few games but starting to get used to that more. With our system, you end up kind of playing all over the place anyway. You can start out on wing and can end up playing mostly as a center anyway depending on how your shift goes."

Here are tonight's anticipated lines and defense pairings for the Red Wings:

Gustav Nyquist-Henrik Zetterberg-Justin Abdelkader

Stephen Weiss-Pavel Datsyuk-Darren Helm

Tomas Tatar-Riley Sheahan-Johan Franzen

Drew Miller-Luke Glendening-Tomas Jurco

Daniel Cleary and Joakim Andersson are scratched.

On defense:

Jonathan Ericsson-Niklas Kronwall

Kyle Quincey-Danny DeKeyser

Brendan Smith-Xavier Ouellet

Brian Lashoff is a healthy scratch. Jakub Kindl (sprained elbow) is on injured reserve.

In goal:

Jimmy Howard (starting)

Petr Mrazek (starting Wednesday in Calgary)

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