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Morning Skate: Howlin' at Home

By Jeff Hancock Updated
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It's the second meeting of the season against the Coyotes and the second game at the Joe between the two clubs. Back on December 8, the Wings beat Phoenix 5-2 behind goals from Bert, Flip, Hudler, Homer, and Helm.

The Red Wings will be looking to bounce back from their lackluster effort on Long Island. The Wings got spanked by the Islanders 5-1. One has to imagine that after having the day off yesterday, the team will want to regain it's form tonight. They're a different team at home than on the road and see to play to the level of their competition. So I guess we should be thankful the Yotes are a better team than the Islander, eh? I guess that means the Wings will play better tonight.

Hopefully they just go int "F You" mode and dominate the game tonight. We'll know quickly which Wings' team has taken the ice. In the last three games, Detroit has gotten down 3-0, 2-0, and 4-0. If the Wings skate away with a lead or, hell, a tie after the first period, it will be a huge improvement over the last three games.

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Five For Howling is your SBNation Coyotes blog.

Puck drop is just after 7:30p ET on Fox Sports Detroit

The Expected Lineup

Johan Franzen -- Pavel Datsyuk -- Todd Bertuzzi

Valtteri Filppula -- Henrik Zetterberg -- Jiri Hudler

Danny Cleary -- Justin Abdelkader -- Drew Miller

Tomas Holmstrom -- Darren Helm -- Jan Mursak

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Nicklas Lidstrom -- Ian White

Niklas Kronwall -- Brad Stuart

Jonathan Ericsson -- Jakub Kindl

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Jimmy Howard (starting)

Ty Conklin

Scratches: Mike Commodore and Cory Emmerton

Injuries: Patrick Eaves

COYOTES HOW THEY MATCH UP RED WINGS
20-17-6 (46 pts; 11th in West) Record 26-15-1 (53 pts; 5th in West)
2.49 (24th) Goals Per Game 3.19 (4th)
2.51 (9th) Goals Against Per Game 2.36 (6th)
13.1% (29th) Power Play % 19.4% (6th)
83.3% (12th) Penalty Kill % 80.8% (23rd)
Radim Vrbata (20 goals) Goal Leader Johan Franzen (16 goals)
Ray Whitney (36 points) Points Leader Pavel Datsyuk (43 points)

  • The Red Wings are 61-39-22-3 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time against the Coyotes.
  • Datsyuk took the morning skate and I would expect him to play.
  • Phoenix has a really crappy power play. It's second worst in the entire league. Expect them to score at least one power play goal tonight.
  • Jimmy Howard can win is 100th game tonight and Danny Cleary can score his 100th goal. Mike Babcock can earn his 400th win.
  • The Coyotes have lost seven of their last nine games (2-4-3).
  • Detroit has won 12 straight games at home.
  • We could see the return of Jan Mursak tonight. He's officially been recalled from his condition stint in Grand Rapids and is now on the active roster. I've listen him in the expected lineup. We'll updated when the official lineup comes out.

Prediction: Make it 13 straight at home. Detroit wins a close, hard fought 3-1 game. Two goals from Zetterberg and and empty netter from Cleary. Everyone hits their milestones. Hank is your player of hte game.

Let's Go Red Wings.