Morning Skate: Kings/Wings

by Casey Richey on Jan 7, 2010 9:16 AM CST in Game Preview

Continuing with god-awful 3rd jerseys...

Ah, the rhyming team name game. It's back and should be a tight one between the two teams. LA has turned around its team since last year for the better while Detroit has plummeted.

ZETTERBERG AND CLEARY ARE BACK! Finally, finally, finally. Henrik Zetterberg and Dan Cleary will return to the line-up tonight. After the jump I'll post the predicted lines but here's what this means in terms of health: the Wings are now only without Johan Franzen and that Jason Williams guy on the list of forwards. There should be little excuse for lack of scoring now and hopefully excuses won't need to be made.
Say good-bye (for now) to Mattias Ritola (Riiiiiiii-to-laaaaaaaa) as he's been sent back down to the Griffins. Although Ritola had no points in his stay, he provided some great energy to the second and fourth lines each night he was in the line-up. I don't think this is the last we will see of Mattias.
Jimmy Howard is starting again (7th straight ) for Detroit and here's what Uncle Mike had to say on the whole deal:
"I just think Howie played good in Anaheim (4-1 loss Tuesday). The bottom line, you're saying to yourself, 'We need to win tomorrow's game. What gives you the best opportunity to win?'" To me, this says that Howard's the new star in net because he's being trusted with the must win situations.
Yahoo! Sports will have a video stream of the game tonight. So watch it there (or if you have the regular tv station that works) and comment here!
The Kings are a big, powerful obstacle in the way of the Detroit return to the playoff hunt. Currently, the Kings sit at a healthy 53 points in the Pacific Division. They've won their last 3 games (including a 6-2 drubbing of the Sharks) and
Jonathan Quick--recently selected to team USA's roster--has a pretty good 2.56 GAA and is a good young netminder...much like the guy between the pipes in Motown. Quick will likely get the start in net tonight and has the potential to shut down the Wings.
Other scores around the league: Buffalo 5-Tampa Bay 2, Minny 4-Calgary 1, NYI 3-Colorado 2. For more coverage of the NHL, check out SB Nation Hockey.
If you're into college football, there's that National Championship thingy tonight. If you want to join the game thread for either Alabama or Texas, before joining us of course, the respective SB Nation affiliates are here: Roll Bama Roll and Burnt Orange Nation. This is a big time game from two powerhouses of college football and I for one will definitely be watching it before the Wings game.
Battle of California is your source for any Kings related odds & ends...I just can't help thinking of The Governator. Also, the Royal Half is a Kings specific blog outside of the SBNation network.

Check after the jump for the lines for tonight as well as more "insight" and stuff like that.

It will be interesting to see how this team plays when the fourth liners aren't expected to be snipers. I, for one, think that this means EVERYONE is going to have a shoot first mentality tonight. This could come back to haunt the Wings but why not put puck on net? Good things happen when you do it--deflections and juicy rebounds namely--so put the puck on Quick and force defense instead of allowing the defense to come to you.

Imagine if Brad Stuart had Niklas Kronwall back on his line instead of Brett Lebda. Let it settle in, savor it. Ah, in a few weeks we'll know what that feels like. Lebda has gotten better I'll admit playing alongside Stewie but he still has a handful of boneheaded plays every night. If I had to give a midseason Norris Trophy to a Wing, it would be Brad Stuart. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

The Euro Twin and Homer String Band Trio should have some success tonight. Homer will automatically draw Rob Scuderi most likely who will spend all night trying to break Holmstrom out of the concrete mold his feet are set in in front of the crease. This should open up some opportunities for the Euro Twins to manuever. Passing is a key to tonight's game because of the speed of the Kings defenders like Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson...wait, not that Jack Johnson...or that one.

Face-offs will be key tonight. The Kings are in the bottom half of the league in that department while the Wings are in top 5. Datsyuk, Filppula, Helm, and Abdelkader will need to win the majority of the face-offs tonight (especially in the offensive zone) in order to help this team win. As you know, puck possession starts in the dot and the Wings need to play that style of game against a team that gives up the second fewest shots per game.

As said above, they give up the second fewest shtos per game, but they also rank in the bottom 10 in shots for. This is gonna be a tight game offensively for both teams I think and it's the style that they both have to play. Young goalies with a lot of turnover within their line-up from last year has put the stress on defense for both sides.

Kings out of tonight's game: Justin Williams (broken leg...is that a "Williams" thing?), Jarrett Stoll (lower body), Lotkinov and Jones.

Key matchup to watch when Detroit is on the attack: Pretty clear here, watch to see how Henrik Zetterberg fares tonight in his return. Watch Dan Cleary too but Zetterberg is the scorer of the two and it will be interesting to see if there's any fall-off in his game after the injury.

Key matchup to watch when LA is on the attack: This one's pretty clear too, watch Anze Kopitar. The guy is a beast and one of the most underrated forwards in the league. He leads LA with 42 points (17 G, 25 A) but also has guys like Ryan Smyth and Dustin Brown to help the offense when he lags behind.

Expected forward lines (via Khan of MLive.com):

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Cleary-Filppula-Bertuzzi
Draper-Helm-Eaves
May/Maltby-Abdelkader-Miller/Leino

Poll

Worse old 3rd jersey?

Anaheim's (see last Morning Skate)

25 votes

Los Angeles

29 votes

54 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Key Matchups

I like our top line matchup, as Datsyuk usually does well against the bigger Eastern Europeans like Kopitar (and Ovechkin). Lidstrom and Rafalski don’t have the size to keep Ryan Smyth out of Jimmah’s sight lines, so it’s going to be really important that Datsyuk and Zetterberg take space away from the guys who might want to fire from the outside.

Defensively, I’ve seen Rob Scuderi play five times so far this season in the various Kings games I’ve watched. I’ve yet to be impressed with him. He still doesn’t seem to fit into the Kings as well as he did with the Penguins last year.

by J.J. from Kansas on Jan 7, 2010 9:42 AM CST reply actions

Scuderi

Every July, there are players that are vastly overrated and receive pay days based on like six games the prior season. Rob Scuderi is one of those players WITH A VENGEANCE.

by Michael Petrella on Jan 7, 2010 12:14 PM CST up reply actions

Lidstrom/Rafalski

Brad Stuart should be on the guys like Smyth i think. He’s the only guy we have physical enough to handle guys like Smyth

Winging It In Motown

by Casey Richey on Jan 7, 2010 12:18 PM CST up reply actions

I’m so glad that the Red Wings don’t have stupid third jerseys to make fun about. Sometimes I wonder what people were thinking when they were designing some of those ugly jerseys. I can’t believe that there are still a good number of Anaheim fans who wear their hideous jersey regularly… or at least they show it often on TV.

by Gander on Jan 7, 2010 11:18 AM CST reply actions

yes finally!

zetterberg and cleary back!…lets get things going guys

TULO = 2010 MVP!

LETS GO WINGS!

by TuLoRocks2008 on Jan 7, 2010 12:10 PM CST reply actions

I'm excited for this one

And super glad Yahoo! is streaming the game. Now I won’t have to worry about finding a stream.

It’s amazing how much better this lineup looks just by plugging in Z and Cleary. Now we just need to see some chemistry with all these guys.

by Brobz on Jan 7, 2010 12:42 PM CST reply actions

That’s an excellent poll. I went with the Kings jersey because while the Anaheim jersey is objectively worse, I had to actually cheer for the team with the Burger King guy on the front. It was the ’90s, people were wearing acid washed jeans and playing with pogs, what do you want from me?

The Kings usually play Doughty-Scuderi against the other team’s top line, so they’ll most likely be playing with Smyth-Kopitar-Brown against your top line. If they shift Zetterberg down to a second line you’ll likely see Johnson-O’Donnell with Kopitar.

Jarret Stoll is back from a hamstring injury but didn’t play very many even strength minutes last game to ease him in. I don’t know if they’re going to move him back up or keep him where he is. Also, our #5 and #6 defensemen are out and Matt Greene might miss tonight’s game too, so lines are kind of a mystery. If I had to guess I’d say:

Smyth-Kopitar-Brown
Frolov-Handzus-Segal
Parse-Richardson-Simmonds
Ivanans (ugh)-Stoll-Moller

Scuderi-Doughty
Johnson-O’Donnell
Martinez-Greene

Quick

Have fun complaining about the refs while ignoring the hundred illegal picks your team throws a game!

The West Coast is the Best Coast.

by RudyKelly on Jan 7, 2010 12:50 PM CST reply actions

Wake up with the king! Thanks for the lines, much appreciated.
Ah pogs. "remember Alf? He’s back, in pog form!"

What picks!? :)

Winging It In Motown

by Casey Richey on Jan 7, 2010 3:46 PM CST via mobile up reply actions

I’m always down for Simpsons quotes. Well done.

I was going to say something snarky like “if you don’t like contact sports, watch soccer,” but he does raise some good points and I feel like with his sarcasm I might be friends with him.

by Michael Petrella on Jan 7, 2010 3:51 PM CST up reply actions

Stats, etc.

Montreal has the worst third jerseys, hands down.

Howie vs. Ozzy: before the Anaheim game, odds were even for tonight. After the loss when basically no one tried except Howie (even with a couple weak goals), that practically guaranteed he’d be in net tonight. Right now, I estimate 70-30 in favor of Howie against the Sharks too, and I think that depends a lot more on how the team plays in front of him.

Wings
GF/game: 25th
GA/game: 9th
Pts/game (away): 16th

Kings
GF/game: 7th
GA/game: 14th
Pts/game (home): 10th

by bleep bloop on Jan 7, 2010 2:00 PM CST reply actions

one of the things i saw in the stat department is that LA has a good GAA at home and a good record overall.

I agreed, Howie will get 70/30 or even 80/20 unless he has a considerable dropoff in his play.

Winging It In Motown

by Casey Richey on Jan 7, 2010 4:41 PM CST up reply actions

Blackout

Forgot to mention that blackout rules apply for Yahoo sports coverage so you’ll get the stupid “not available in your area” thing if you’re in Michigan.

by bleep bloop on Jan 7, 2010 2:04 PM CST reply actions

www.sadtrombone.com

Winging It In Motown

by Casey Richey on Jan 7, 2010 4:40 PM CST up reply actions

Kinda sad

to see Bertuzzi-Datsyuk-Homer split up, but if it mean bringin Z back so be it. Glad to see May is likely out.

Back off man, I'm a scientist

Check it out, I blog too!
"Hockeytown USA":http://weiss1rk.wordpress.com

by Ryan Weiss on Jan 7, 2010 4:42 PM CST reply actions

May started out doing his job...

but then he dropped off in his actual necessity since he didn’t keep the flies off but fought for fun. If he’s not keeping the flies off, we all know he can’t score so why put him in. I agree with you that I’d rather see him out than in.

Winging It In Motown

by Casey Richey on Jan 7, 2010 4:45 PM CST up reply actions