Game 7 Wings vs Ducks Game Day Updates

The Dirt

• The big buzz today isn't just that Patrick Eaves is back in the lineup (woo!) but that Cory Emmerton, not Mikael Samuelsson, is the odd man out. The 4th line in practice was Eaves-Samuelsson-Bertuzzi. I have no idea if Sammy will actually center that line in the game, but Babcock said

"Someone will be (taking faceoffs), we've got lots of centres on the team, not necessarily on that line. We'll work it out."

"I just thought we didn't turn enough skin in the offensive zone (in Game 6)," Babcock said. "I didn't think we were physical enough.

"The last time Patty played I think he had six or seven finished checks. I trust him with the puck. I want Samuelsson for the power play. I like Bert to take the body. I went through it all, and I tried to figure out how to do it."

Neither Bertuzzi, Eaves nor Samuelsson are too concerned and said they'll figure it out.

"I don't know," Samuelsson said. "We'll see tonight. Usually it changes just for the faceoff. If you can read the play pretty good, it's not a huge deal. If you read the play, stay on the right side, stay calm and jump in holes it'll be fine."

Bertuzzi also wasn't sweating such details. "When the puck drops, everyone knows where to play," Bertuzzi said. "We all know how to play down low in our own zone. We've just got to to help each other out in the faceoff."

Eaves said "At some point we've all played Centre in our career and we can all help each other out"

Scratching Emmerton may actually make perfect sense. In game 6, Cory Emmerton went into the boards hard in the 2nd period, and was absent from the bench with 7:25 left in the 2nd and didn't return until 5:10 into the 3'd. He then took 2 short shifts totaling 1:17, didn't play for the remainder of the game and only played a total of 7:52 in the game. There was no report on him, but given that it's the playoffs, that's not really surprising. I'm fairly certain Emmerton is hurt and either isn't fit to play, or is compromised enough that Babcock would rather have Samuelsson in and centering that line.

J.J. checked the replay and observed the following; At 10:29 of the second, Emmerton came in on a rush where he threw the puck at the front of the net while Samuelsson crashed. He kind of hit a rut or lost an edge and his left shoulder hit the boards kind of hard. Stayed on a knee for a minute and got up wincing. Also, at 2:47 left in the 1st period, Bertuzzi took the faceoff instead of Emmerton.

Remember when we saw Franzen centering Bertuzzi and Samuelsson? That's because Emmerton was gone. Missing the 4th line center made Babcock have to double shift Franzen, keep the 4th line shifts shorter and put a heavier work load on the other lines.

Emmerton has played more shorthanded time in this series than anyone except Kronwall and Ericsson, so hopefully the Wings don't get any/many penalties, and the rest of the team is going to have to step up and fill the PK void.

Steckel is the 4th line centre for the Ducks and he's won 56.7% of his faceoffs in this series so far. In game 6, Franzen was 0-1 on faceoffs, Bertuzzi was 0-2 and Samuelsson didn't take any. Emmerton only took 6 faceoffs and went 2-4 (33%)

• Tom McCollum was recalled from Grand Rapids Friday, and participated in the on ice stretches and warmups this morning/afternoon; actually, all three goalies did (Howard, Gustavsson, McCollum). Just like on Friday, Jimmy left the ice early, but it appears once again to be part of the plan.
• In case you missed it, Brian Lashoff was sent back to Grand Rapids so he can play with the Griffins in their continuing quest for the Calder Cup. Much better for him to be playing than warming a seat in the press box.
• Boudreau is whipped from trying to keep up with Babcock.

"I know at the end of each of these games, I’m pretty whipped. That tells me I’m having to do more thinking than I really want to do. And besides, when you’re trying to match wits with Mike (Babcock), who has been in every pressure situation in the world, it’s not the easiest thing."

• Fun tidbit...Having Swedish Mother's Day at a different time than American Mother's Day may get Zetterberg into trouble.

Lineup

Forwards
Henrik Zetterberg	Pavel Datsyuk	Justin Abdelkader
Johan Franzen	Valtteri Filppula	Daniel Cleary
Gustav Nyquist	Joakim Andersson	Damien Brunner
Patrick Eaves	Mikael Samuelsson	Todd Bertuzzi

Defense
Niklas Kronwall	Jonathan Ericsson
Kyle Quincey	Brendan Smith
Carlo Colaiacovo	Jakub Kindl

Goalies

Jimmy Howard

Jonas Gustavsson

Thomas McCollum

Healthy Scratches

Cory Emmerton

Ian White

Injured

Danny DeKeyser (Broken Thumb)

Darren Helm (Back)

Drew Miller (Broken Hand)

PP#1

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Franzen

Kronwall-Samuelsson

PP#2

Nyquist-Filppula-Cleary

Kindl-Brunner

Expected Ducks Lineup

Forwards
Daniel Winnik	Saku Koivu	Andrew Cogliano
Bobby Ryan	Ryan Getzlaf	Corey Perry
Kyle Palmieri	Nick Bonino	Teemu Selanne
Matt Beleskey	David Steckel	Emerson Etem

Defense
Sheldon Souray	Francois Beauchemin
Cam Fowler	Ben Lovejoy
Bryan Allen	Luca Sbisa

Goalies

Jonas Hiller

Viktor Fasth

LET'S GO RED WINGS!