Morning Skate: Close the Door, Mr. Conklin

by JeffHancock41 on Feb 4, 2012 7:00 AM CST in Game Preview

The Oilers put on a show Tuesday night.

22-year-old Sam Gagner scored four goals and added four assists to tie Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey for the franchise record of eight points in a single game. The Oilers ended the game with an 8-4 victory over the Blackhawks. Before Tuesday, Edmonton had only scored nine goals in their previous four games before the offensive explosion. Hopefully they shot their load on offense and they return to their normal ways tonight.

Of course, news broke yesterday that Jimmy Howard is out with the tip of his finger broken. That means it's up to Mr. Conklin to close the door. And while he's played better recently, if Gagner plays like he did last game he might be breaking Darryl Sittler's record of 10 points in a single hockey game.

Joking aside, the Wings are finally above .500 on the road (15-14-0) and, even without Howard, the Oilers are a team Detroit should beat. They're capable of stealing a game (as they did against Chicago), but the Wings talent is better, older and wiser. The division battle is close and the team has put an emphasis on playing better on the road. Tonight is a chance at two more points and another step in the right direction.

The race for the playoffs continues with a second stop in Alberta. The rest of the Central is right on the Wings heels. Don't let the points slip away.

The Copper & Blue is your SBNation Oilers' blog.

Puck drop is just after 10p ET on Fox Sports Detroit.

The Expected Lineup

Johan Franzen -- Pavel Datsyuk -- Todd Bertuzzi

Valtteri Filppula -- Henrik Zetterberg -- Jiri Hudler

Danny Cleary -- Darren Helm -- Drew Miller

Jan Mursak -- Justin Abdelkader -- Tomas Holmstrom

Nicklas Lidstrom -- Ian White

Niklas Kronwall -- Brad Stuart

Jonathan Ericsson -- Mike Commodore

Ty Conklin (starting)

Joey MacDonald

Scratches: Cory Emmerton and Jakub Kindl

Injuries: Patrick Eaves (jaw) and Jimmy Howard (finger)

RED WINGS	HOW THEY MATCH UP	OILERS
35-16-1 (71 pts; 1st in NHL)	Record	20-26-5 (45 pts; 14th in West)
3.10 (5th in NHL)	Goals Per Game	2.57 (18th in NHL)
2.33 (6th)	Goals Against Per Game	2.82 (20th)
17.8% (16th)	Power Play %	21.4% (3rd)
80.9% (23rd)	Penalty Kill %	82.6% (15th)
Johan Franzen (19 goals)	Goal Leader	Jordan Eberle (20 goals)
Pavel Datsyuk (53 points)	Points Leader	Jordan Eberle (50 points)

The Red Wings are 55-36-13-10 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time against the Edmonton Oilers franchise.
The Oilers are 3-0-1 in their last four games. They have wins over the Blackhawks, Avalanche, and Sharks and their OT loss was to the Canucks. Not too shabby.
In the "Doesn't Matter in Tonight's Game But it's a Great Stat and Makes the Blackhawks Look Stupid" Department: Edmonton has outscored Chicago 17-6 at home this season.
Potential trade target Ales Hemsky and his 16 goals and 20 assists will be in action for the Oilers tonight.
Former Oiler Ty Conklin is 4-2-0 with a 3.02 GAA, .900 SV% and one shutout against his former team.
Jiri Hudler has four goals in the last three games. Valtteri Filppula has a new career high 41 points already this season. Happy times for everyone. Detroit's "youth" is stepping up.
The Wings are 7-0-0 (including a 2-1 OT thriller at H2H2) in their last seven games against Edmonton.

Prediction: Mr. Conklin will be serviceable. The Wings depth will come through and the third line will continue to play well and chip in a goal. The Datsyuk/Franzen/Bertuzzi line will wake up and be the best group on the night. Wings win 5-3 and Pavel Datsyuk is your player of the game.

Let's Go Red Wings.

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Comments

Prediction form hiccups.

I got an error on the prediction form in this post that I didn’t get in the other. We’re currently looking into it, but if you can’t get the form to work here, it should work for you in the change announcement post.

Also, while we’re getting this all taken care of, please remember to post your prediction in the comments here so that we can make absolutely sure to have it.

by J.J. from Kansas on Feb 4, 2012 7:44 AM CST reply actions

Bert POTG

4 to 3 Wings. Conks gets out of the net one too many times, and gets burnt for it. The Oil’s other two goals will be of the “not much Conks could have done about it” variety

Bert gets #300, and assists on another.

continues to be shitty.

by Abrant23 on Feb 4, 2012 8:00 AM CST reply actions

I got the error too

I’m going with one Pavel Datsyuk for PotG honours tonight. I also see Bert potting #300, but Pavel will put on a clinic against the young Oilers…

5-2 Detroit, Datsyuk PotG.

by Jason T on Feb 4, 2012 8:34 AM CST reply actions

4-2 Detroit, Pavs as PotG

Manager of the Mursak League's Banzai Bananas. BANZAI!!!

by Dannik99 on Feb 4, 2012 9:05 AM CST reply actions

I have to say

to all those people bitching about Zetterberg, look at what Brad Richards is doing is NY. Absolutely nothing. He certainly parlayed a weak free agent class and a ridiculous amount of hype into an insane contract/cap hit. At least Zetterberg is an animal on defense when he isn’t scoring. I can’t say the same for Richards.

DETROIT RED WINGS – "war were declared"
Twitter - @TheIngles22

by Eric @ PRBU on Feb 4, 2012 9:16 AM CST reply actions 4 recs

I second that emotion

by InMDmissingtheD on Feb 4, 2012 10:55 AM CST up reply actions

4-1 Wings

Datsyuk as PotG

by Darthferrer on Feb 4, 2012 9:57 AM CST reply actions

5-3 Wings

Z is your POTG

"Goaltending is a normal job, sure. How would you like it in your job if every time you made a small mistake, a red light went on over your desk and 15,000 people stood up and yelled at you."
-Jacques Plante

by DetroitSports on Feb 4, 2012 10:26 AM CST reply actions

4-2, Mule

Got the same error as well

by Megistrus on Feb 4, 2012 10:26 AM CST reply actions

6-5 Wings

Filppula is the POTG.

"Hey Laserlips. Your mama was a snowblower."

by AirmanSD on Feb 4, 2012 10:36 AM CST reply actions

4-3 Detroit, Homer

by RandomWingsDude on Feb 4, 2012 10:46 AM CST reply actions

Worked fine for me

5-3 Wings, Hudler PotG for posterity’s sake

"I'm a simple man. I like pretty, dark-haired women and breakfast food" - Ron Swanson

by rock n rye on Feb 4, 2012 10:51 AM CST reply actions

4-2 Detroit, Datsyuk

got an error when i tried here, but it worked fine in the prediction contest update post.

by Pentatonic on Feb 4, 2012 10:55 AM CST reply actions

5-2 Wings, Flip

by stevenyc on Feb 4, 2012 11:13 AM CST reply actions

No more floating taylor hall tonight, boys

Part of the trouble chicago had was taylor hall was doing his best ovechkin impression, hanging out in the deep neutral zone waiting for his pass into the zone.
We’ll be having none of that bullshit, tonight.

"I'll smile in June."

by Lords of Olympia on Feb 4, 2012 11:33 AM CST reply actions

5-3 Wings, Datsyuk

By the way i don’t see myself on the new prediction thing’s leaderboard..weird

I like to Dangle Dangle.

by playboyperry509 on Feb 4, 2012 11:41 AM CST reply actions

4-3 Detroit, Cleary

I can see the application, but when I click on “My Predictions”, it says “No data available in table”

Fan of the Detroit Tigers, Lions and Red Wings.

by Elfuego51 on Feb 4, 2012 11:43 AM CST reply actions

And also, Hemsky

Has 4 goals and 16 assists (20 points), not 16 goals and 20 assists. You guys got me all excited for a second.

I like to Dangle Dangle.

by playboyperry509 on Feb 4, 2012 11:43 AM CST reply actions

5-2 Detroit/Datsyuk

Sam Gagner is probably tired :-p

And yea I’m failing at getting the Predictions to work :-/
Do I need an openid account on sportsnation? (i.e. a different one than my current one or just to log into the predictions part using the openid)

Asheeshy's Twitter

"A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day." ~ Calvin (C & H)

by Igorzba on Feb 4, 2012 12:29 PM CST reply actions

You need a Google or Yahoo account

by J.J. from Kansas on Feb 4, 2012 12:42 PM CST up reply actions

I love these posts....

that dare the wings to loose….“This is a team we should beat”….remember NYI? MON? TOR?

by yzguy on Feb 4, 2012 12:48 PM CST reply actions

I don't know why

But bottom-tier teams are like Red Wings kryptonite (especially Eastern Conference teams). Combination of unfamiliarity & complacency? Not sure, but it’s frustrating as hell.

Relentlessly preaching the word of TPH and converting the heathens in the NHL wasteland that is Oregon.

by Alexis L. on Feb 4, 2012 2:25 PM CST up reply actions

Is this not a team the Wings should beat though?

At no point did I say it would be easy and did say the Oilers are capable of stealing a game. Detroit is better at every position except for maybe goalie now with Howard out.

Brendan Smith fan

by JeffHancock41 on Feb 4, 2012 2:59 PM CST via mobile up reply actions

I totally agree with you

That’s just why it is so frustrating, because we are SO much better. Losing to Columbus or the Isles is just silly. And while I would say that Edmonton is better than them, they still shouldn’t be hard. I guess it’s just one of those things. We’ve had some pretty good games against the Oilers though, hopefully this will be one of them!

Relentlessly preaching the word of TPH and converting the heathens in the NHL wasteland that is Oregon.

by Alexis L. on Feb 4, 2012 3:04 PM CST up reply actions

Remember the last time we played Edmonton?

Please…

by J.J. from Kansas on Feb 4, 2012 3:17 PM CST up reply actions

4-2 Red Wings, Zetterberg PotG

Winging It In Motown, Over the Monster, Liberty Ballers, and Buffalo Rumblings!

by Scott Kenny on Feb 4, 2012 1:01 PM CST reply actions

4-2 oilers

how often do we sweep western canada?

by mikerlz on Feb 4, 2012 1:10 PM CST reply actions

Slight add-on

The Sak and Kindl are out tonight. Isn’t Edmonton regarded as a quick team much in the way that Vancouver is? Confused as to why Babcock would put Kindl in for that one and take him out for this one, unless he really looked that shaky last game.

Winging It In Motown, Over the Monster, Liberty Ballers, and Buffalo Rumblings!

by Scott Kenny on Feb 4, 2012 1:15 PM CST reply actions