Morning Skate: Red Wings at Devils Preview

7:00p ET, Prudential Center

Newark, NJ

TV: Fox Sports Detroit

Radio: 97.1 The Ticket

Devils Blog: In Lou We Trust

Not going to lie… on paper the Devils are better than I expected. Top 10 in goals against and both specialty teams categories. You wonder why they're not better? Is it goal scoring? Goaltending? I'm not going to say too many negative things about Martin Brodeur. He hasn't been that great by any means this season, but he'll likely shut out the Red Wings tonight. Who the hell knows?

What we do know about the Wings is that new injuries keep on coming and the old ones never go away. Henrik Zetterberg… he's out. We knew that. Stephen Weiss… he had a set back. Of course he did. Pavel Datsyuk… he lost his smile. So tonight we get the pleasure of Joakim Andersson: First Line Center. Coming to a hockey rink near you March 2014.

I have no idea what to expect tonight. The Devils are 0-8 in the shootout this year. I smell some extra time coming our way this evening and a New Jersey first for the season. Let's just hope the Wings can actually skate away with at least one point.

The Expected Lineup

Forwards

Johan Franzen	Joakim Andersson	Gustav Nyquist
Justin Abdelkader	Darren Helm	Daniel Alfredsson
Tomas Tatar	Riley Sheahan	Tomas Jurco
Drew Miller	Luke Glendening	Todd Bertuzzi

Defensemen

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

Goaltenders

Jimmy Howard (starting)

Jonas Gustavsson

Scratches: Daniel Cleary & Patrick Eaves

Injuries: Jakub Kindl (knee), Pavel Datsyuk (broken heart; missing zest), Henrik Zetterberg (back), Mikael Samuelsson (something) & Stephen Weiss (groin)

DEVILS	THE MATCH-UP	RED WINGS
26-23-13 (65 pts; 6th in Metro)	Record	28-20-12 (68 pts; 5th in Atlantic)
2.39 (24th in NHL)	Goals Per Game	2.58 (18th in NHL)
2.34 (4th)	Goals Against Per Game	2.62 (14th)
20.6% (9th)	Power Play %	17.1% (18th)
87.8% (1st)	Penalty Kill %	83.6% (9th)
Jaromir Jagr (19 goals)	Goal Leader	Henrik Zetterberg (16 goals)
Jaromir Jagr (52 points)	Points Leader	Henrik Zetterberg (48 points)

Opponent Outlook

Player to Fear: Jaromir Jagr. He's old just like the Wings. So he should fit in well against them.

X-Factor: Adam Henrique. The Mule is the 1st star of the week and Henrique was right behind him.

Familiar Faces: Damien Brunner (Click Here)

Thumbs up (One Thing to Like About New Jersey): Their fans.

Thumbs down (One Thing to Dislike About New Jersey): The trap & 1995.

Bullets of Knowledge

• The Red Wings are 41-35-11-1 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time against the Devils.

• Last 10 games: New Jersey 4-4-2. Detroit 6-2-2.

• Howard is 1-1-0 with a 1.51 GAA, .933 SV% in 2 career games against New Jersey.

Prediction: GTL.