Morning Skate: Ty-me to Conk-quer the Avs (...again)

It wasn't too long ago that the citizens of Hockeytown were up in arms and in full panic mode over the state of the Red Wings (and rightfully so too). This teams has been a roller coaster all season. Granted, there have been more highs than lows, but it's been up and down nonetheless.

This team started the year with 5 straight wins, then 6 straight losses, followed by 4 wins, and then 2 more losses, Babcock called out the team and told them they need to decide if they want to be a good hockey team or not, and they responded with 7 wins-in-a-row. The highs have been high. The lows have been low. Right now it's a high and I'm sure as hell enjoying it.

And the high will hopefully continue tonight in Denver.

According to the "Worldwide Leader," ESPN, the Wings are 32-10-5 against the Avs since the 1999-2000 season. It's their third best winning percentage against any Western Conference team in that time span. That's pretty damn impressive. Especially when you think about some of the Dive teams from the early 2000s that were still loaded with Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, young Milan Hejduk, Chris Drury, Patrick Roy, and the failed Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya experiment. They were our bitch then and they're our bitch now.

That of course doesn't mean it will be easy for the Wings...mainly because Ty Conklin will be in net. It's just a matter of scoring more goals tonight. Put the puck in the net. Do that like four or five times and let's leave Denver with an 8th straight win.

Mile High Hockey is your SBNation Avalanche blog.

Puck drop is just after 8p ET

The Expected Lineup

Johan Franzen -- Pavel Datsyuk -- Todd Bertuzzi

Valtteri Filppula -- Henrik Zetterberg -- Jiri Hudler

Danny Cleary -- Darren Helm -- Chris Conner

Drew Miller -- Justin Abdelkader -- Tomas Holmstrom

Nicklas Lidstrom -- Ian White

Niklas Kronwall -- Jonathan Ericsson

Brad Stuart -- Jakub Kindl

Ty Conklin (starting)

Jimmy Howard

Scratches: Mike Commodore and Cory Emmerton

Injuries: Jan Mursak (ankle) and Patrick Eaves (jaw)

RED WINGS	HOW THEY MATCH UP	AVALANCHE
16-7-1	Record	12-13-1
3.00 (7th)	Goals Per Game	2.58 (T-19th)
2.17 (6th)	Goals Against Per Game	2.98 (20th)
19.4% (8th)	Power Play %	21.8% (3rd)
81.1% (22nd)	Penalty Kill %	80.7% (23rd)
Johan Franzen (11 goals)	Goal Leader	2 tied with 9 goals
Johan Franzen (24 points)	Points Leader	Ryan O'Reilly (19 points)

• The Red Wings are 59-39-5-5 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time against the Avalanche
• Detroit has outscored it's opponents 28-12 during their seven-game-winning-streak
• Colorado has won two-in-a-row and three of their last four
• Semyon Varlamov, who the Avs traded a 1st and 2nd round pick for, is currently 8-10-1 this season with a 2.89 GAA and .904 SV%. Totally worth that lottery pick they're going to give to the Caps. Well done, Dive. Well done.
• Conklin has a 0.00 GAA and a 1.000 SV% in Denver this season. His stats outside of the state of Colorado's borders do not exist.
• Filppula has five goals and 7 points in his last five games. The season we always dreamed about him having, well, it's finally here. Feed the Flip?
• The Mule has 10 goals in his last nine games against the Avs. The Wings are 14-0-0 when Franzen scores a point and are 2-7-1 when he doesn't. I'll continue to say this until it's not true...Feed the Mule.

Prediction: Owning the Avs continues. Franzen gets a goal. Filppula gets an assist. Kronwall is your player of the game. Wings win 5-3.

Let's Go Red Wings.