The Detroit Red Wings are searching for more goal scoring, so they’re shaking up their lines again.
Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, who have played well since being reunited, are now skating with Gustav Nyquist. Justin Abdelkader moved off of their line to play with Tomas Tatar and Dylan Larkin.
But during Tuesday’s 2-1 shoot-out win over the Blue Jackets, Wings juggled their lines after the first two periods, looking to get more offense.
“We were actually kind of rolling three groups of four,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “Juggling guys through that. So, we’ll look at it tomorrow and I’ll watch the game again and decide what’s the best line combinations that we can have.
Blashill said the lines are a work in progress.
“I’d love to leave the lines the same the rest of the year but we gotta find combos that are going to work at a high level.”
Blashill said Nyquist and Tatar are capable of contributing more offense.
“So we want to see if there’s other combinations where we can keep Pavel and Z at the level their playing but get a little more from other people,” Blashill said. “We’re trying to get that little 2 percent better. So you want to be able to score a little more without losing your defensive integrity.
“I thought, coming out of Pittsburgh, we weren’t good enough defensively. I thought, the last two games, we did a really good job overall defensively, and we want to maintain that defense but still get a little more offense. So there’s a lot that went into the lines, and we’ll see how they go.”
Blashill said it’s “an ongoing struggle” because the NHL is so tight. “It becomes a play here and a play there within the game,” he said.
Tatar has not recorded a point in his last eight games. Tatar has 16 goals in 59 games after scoring 29 in 82 games last season.
Nyquist enters the game without a goal in his last 10 games and just two goals over his last 27. Nyquist has 14 goals in 60 games, after scoring 27 in 82 games last season.
“I just think it’s an ongoing balance of being real good defensively and getting a little more offense,” Blashill said. “It’s not an easy thing, and we’ll keep grinding, trying to find ways to get as many points as we can, whichever way we can do it.
“When you make changes, it can invigorate guys. ... Hopefully, this invigorates our guys.”