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730p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: Fox Sports Detroit Plus
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Stars Blog: Defending Big D
Deja vu right?
One week ago the Red Wings took on the Stars at the Joe. One week later the Red Wings are facing the Stars once again on home ice. Hopefully the outcome will be different this time. Both lineups will have a few new faces in this round. Since last Tuesday, Detroit has seen the return of Todd Bertuzzi to the lineup and Dallas has welcomed all-star Jamie Benn to their roster. If you ask me, the Stars upgraded their talent a bit more than the Wings did.
The Wings forwards are status quo from last game. Darren Helm is still out with a back injury. On the blueline, Jakub Kindl will return to the lineup. According to Khan(!), Mike Babcock has not decided which defenseman will sit. Ultimately, it's going to be Kent Huskins or Brian Lashoff. It probably wouldn't hurt Lashoff to sit for a night and watch the game from above and learn, but there really isn't any better learning than right out on the ice. Either way, it's really seems like it might be coming to an end for Kindl in Hockeytown. It's put up or shut up for him. He's a bust of a 1st round pick so far and if Detroit wasn't so thin and awful on defense, he'd probably be long gone by now.
The Expected Lineup
Johan Franzen - Henrik Zetterberg - Damien Brunner
Valtteri Filppula - Pavel Datsyuk - Todd Bertuzzi
Daniel Cleary - Justin Abdelkader - Patrick Eaves
Drew Miller - Cory Emmerton - Jordin Tootoo
*
Niklas Kronwall - Jonathan Ericsson
Brendan Smith - Jakub Kindl
Kyle Quincey - Kent Huskins
*
Jimmy Howard (starting)
Thomas McCollum
Scratches: Brian Lashoff
Injuries: Ian White (laceration), Jonas Gustavsson (groin), Carlo Colaiacovo (shoulder), Mikael Samuelsson (groin) and Jan Mursak (shoulder)
| STARS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 2-3-1 (5 pts; T-7th in West) | Record | 2-2-1 (5 pts; T-7th in West) |
| 2.00 (T-24th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.00 (T-24th in NHL) |
| 2.33 (8th) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.20 (T-21st) |
| 20.0% (16th) | Power Play % | 7.7% (28th) |
| 82.8% (13th) | Penalty Kill % | 68.0% (29th) |
| Michael Ryder (3 goals) | Goal Leader | 3 tied with 2 goals |
| Ray Whitney (5 points) | Points Leader | Pavel Datsyuk (6 points) |
- The Red Wings are 105-97-34-5 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time against the Dallas Stars.
- Last time the these two teams squared off was exactly one week ago. The Stars took home two points in a 2-1 win. Ryder scored both goals for Dallas. Brunner scored his first career NHL goal. However, he scored with four seconds remaining in the game, so it was really a meaningless goal in the grand scheme of things.
- One week ago the Wings played Dallas on the second night of a back-to-back. They faced the Blue Jackets the night before. Tonight, Dallas is playing the second night of a back-to-back. They lost 2-1 to Columbus last night.
- Dallas has not won since beating Detroit last week. They're on a three game losing streak.
- Howard is 4-5-1 with a 2.50 GAA and .913 SV% in his career against the Stars.