Morning Skate: Red Wings at Canadiens Preview

7:30p ET, Bell Centre

Montreal, QB

TV: Fox Sports Detroit

Radio: 97.1 The Ticket

Canadiens Blog: Habs Eyes On The Prize

Welcome to the start of the hockey seas..... What's that? it only *feels * like months since we've seen the Wings play? Ok fine. Welcome back to the hockey season. The Olympics are finally over and we can get back to watching the team we all (except David) love. With Henrik Zetterberg expected to miss the rest of the regular season while recovering from much needed back surgery, Stephen Weiss not quite ready yet, and Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen questionable/doubtful for tonight and tomorrow, I'm a little (lot) nervous.

Ryan Sproul made the trip with the team, giving the Wings 7 defensemen on the road trip. I hope he's the extra defenseman and we don't need him to play, because thinking about him playing for the Wings right now makes my stomach feel agitated. His defensive game needs a lot of work at the AHL level, and watching him last weekend was a reminder of just how rough he can be in his own zone. Ugh ugh ugh.

As for the lines, I'm doing a lot of guessing right now because we don't' even know who is or isn't going to play. For now I'm assuming Pasha and Mule are both out, so our first line center is.... Helm?

The Expected Lineup... maybe?

Forwards

Gustav Nyquist	Darren Helm	Justin Abdelkader
Tomas Tatar	Riley Sheahan	Tomas Jurco
Patrick Eaves	Joakim Andersson	Daniel Alfredsson
Drew Miller	Luke Glendening	Daniel Cleary

Defensemen

Niklas Kronwall	Jonathan Ericsson
Kyle Quincey	Danny DeKeyser
Brian Lashoff	Brendan Smith

Goaltenders

Jimmy Howard

Jonas Gustavsson

Scratches: Todd Bertuzzi, Ryan Sproul

Injuries: Johan Franzen (concussion), Jakub Kindl (knee) Pavel Datsyuk (knee)

LTIR: Stephen Weiss (sorts hernia surgery) Henrik Zetterberg (recovering from back surgery)

CANADIENS	THE MATCH-UP	RED WINGS
32-21-6 (70 pts; 3rd in Atlantic)	Record	26-20-12 (64 pts; 5th in Atlantic)
2.46 (22nd in NHL)	Goals Per Game	2.53 (19th in NHL)
2.36 (6th)	Goals Against Per Game	2.67 (15th)
19.1% (12th)	Power Play %	16.5% (22nd)
86.0% (3rd)	Penalty Kill %	83.0% (10th)
Max Pacioretty (26 goals)	Goal Leader	Henrik Zetterberg (16 goals)
P.K. Subban (39 points)	Points Leader	Henrik Zetterberg (48 points)

Opponent Outlook

Player to Fear: Max Pacioretty is a darn good hockey player. This has been a message from Captain Obvious.

X-Factor: P.K. Subban can be pain in the ass, or a non-factor. I'm hoping for the latter.

Familiar Faces: aucun.

Thumbs up (One Thing to Like About Montreal): Carey Price.

Thumbs down (One Thing to Dislike About Montreal): So... much.....French...

Bullets of Knowledge

• The Red Wings are 202-271-96-0 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time against the Habs.

• Last 10 games: Montreal 5-4-1. Detroit 5-3-2.

• Howard is 2-1-0 with a 3.32 GAA, .882 SV% in 3 career games against Montreal.

Prediction: Chaos