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Both teams disappoint at the start of the season

Detroit gives a slightly better impression, they won two games which makes them a favorite in this home game

The Red Wings have had a rather disappointing start in the season. Their biggest issue is scoring, and that’s exactly what should be their strong suit. After they struggled against Buffalo and Carolina and eventually won, they lost to Boston. They took 26 shots on goal, and were completely lost in the first and third period, when they took five and six shots, respectively. The new acquired Alfredsson and Weiss, of whom so much was expected, both took only one shot on goal, which is ridiculous for such big names. The only player playing on a higher level was Zetterberg, who scored the lone goal, but everyone else needs to start wondering what they are doing and when do they plan to start playing well.

At the beginning of the season, they were announced favorites to win the Stanley Cup, right next to Chicago. But if they keep up this play, they could struggle to secure a spot in the playoffs. They cannot blame it on the excellent Boston defense, because their defense is playing well in every game, unlike Detroit’s offense, where there are a lot of unknowns, especially with the new stars Alfredsson and Weiss.

- [Our power play] didn't have much today. I think in the other two games we at least created a lot of chances, but the puck hasn't gone in. Today wasn't good - Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said.

Against Phoenix, who are also not playing very good, they have a chance to start scoring and improve their goal difference. If they fail again, something is seriously wrong and they will need to make a lot of changes. All important players will be playing tonight, and in this game only a win is acceptable.

Eaves, Helm, Tootoo and goalie Gustavsson are still out on injuries.
 
After a good start in the season and victory over the Rangers, the Coyotes were defeated in the last two games with ten received goals in total, which is not flattering at all. The new acquired player Ribeiro was expected to jump start the offense, but this still has not happened. However, the season did just start.

After their heavy defeat to the Sharks, they did worse against the Islanders. They received six goals out of 28 shots, and two of them were short-handed out of eight such occasions. There is nothing positive to highlight from this game, except the fact they had more shots on goal than the opponent, which is not important when we look at the final score. Goalie John Smith’s save percentage was at 78% which is definitely terrible for a goalie of his caliber.

- We're beating ourselves right now. The teams we played against played good games, but I’d like to see what we can do and what we are capable of - said Phoenix coach, Dave Tippet.

Phoenix have a penalty killing of mere 65% in three games, which is a disaster and points to a potential problem in this season, and they need to snap out of it ASAP. There are a lot of things they need to improve, but they need a little more time. 

Defenseman Klesla is still injured, and Derek Morris is also questionable for the game (upper body-injury). 

This should finally be a game Detroit will like. After two road games they are returning home and they can not make a mistake or play poorly in front of their home crowd.They played against three tough teams with grinding defenses, such as the defense we saw in Boston, where they did not have too many chances in the attacking zone. They have great players that can score a lot of goals against any opponent, they even scored 8 goals against that same Boston team during the preseason. Phoenix won their first game and then disaster started. After Sharks, Islanders also completely outplayed them scored six goals. Their penalty killing is very bad, only 65% in first three games. Today they will be without their defensemen Kiesl and Morris is questionable. Detroit are better team than Islanders and players such as Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Alfredsson, Weiss, Franzen and others can surely make this Phoenix catastrophe even bigger.