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Time: 7:00pm ET
Place: Little Caesar’s Arena
TV: FSD, ATTP
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket, 1270 AM
Here we are gang, the last game of 2017! A night where we can kick off the new year on a positive note, or just go ahead and ride the doom slide all the way down and work our way up from losing to the Penguins, who we not only hate but have also crashed this year. Oh pardon me, not crashed, they are - as they put it - “remodeling”.
Maybe Riley Sheahan’s curse wasn’t so much lifted as it was transferred - maybe we sent him in undercover to do exactly that and dismantle the Penguins from the inside - who could say?
The Pittsburgh media is so desperate for good news they are really hyping the call-up of Daniel Sprong from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Here’s how much hope they are piling on Sprong’s shoulders, there are mentions of “attitude problems” and “maturity” and just a hint of “defensive responsibility” which we all know points to high expectations for elite young players.
Speaking of young guys speculated to have attitude problems
Let’s talk about our bottle of lightning, Andreas Athanasiou! AA found himself back home on the wing after Mantha was scratched (nagging injury) and he put on a show, probably his best game of the season. Arguably the best game of any Wing this season. Larkin clearly enjoys playing with AA on his line, they can take turns tossing the puck down the ice to the other one who is already three steps behind the defense.
Hoooooowever, Blashill likes taking creative players and trying to crush them into boring centers - again that whole responsibility narrative - but it would be great if AA could stay as a top-6 winger for a while and keep the offensive sparks flying. Blashill was AGAIN quoted throwing a little dig at AA’s work ethic, saying AA’s game is best “when he works and competes hard”.
I’ve written and deleted about 10 sentences here in response to that little gem of a quote, but this is a family website. Use your imagination.
Let’s end 2017 with a victory
So, we’ll see how the lineup shakes out, presuming Mantha is ready for action, and I for one I have no problem ending the year putting the smackdown on the Penguins. Is it kicking someone while they’re down if you’re also down? We’ll be like one of those spiders that digs holes to catch their prey from below.
But like a huge spider, that eats penguins. Or maybe a bunch of small spiders that work together.
Andreas Arachnidasiou.
Let’s Go Red Wings!
Projected Lineups
Detroit Red Wings
Gustav Nyquist - Henrik Zetterberg - Tyler Bertuzzi
Tomas Tatar - Dylan Larkin - Andreas Athanasiou
Darren Helm - Frans Nielsen - Justin Abdelkader
Martin Frk - David Booth
Jonathan Ericsson - Trevor Daley
Danny DeKeyser - Mike Green
Niklas Kronwall - Nick Jensen
Xavier Ouellet
Jimmy Howard
Petr Mrazek
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Game Day Prediction Contest
Would you like to predict the outcome of the game and potentially become internet famous? Well you're in luck, because here's your opportunity. Here's how it works.
First off, if you don't have an SBN Username, make one! We'd love to have you, plus it's much easier to track your predictions season-long. Then make your guess on the winning team, final score, and who the Red Wings player of the game will be. Enter the required information into the form below using the formats indicated. If you don't use those formats, your answers will be disregarded. All submissions are timestamped and will be accepted only until the official game start time. Only one submission per person, please. The Red Wings POTG will be determined by the collective of WiiM writers.
Each correct winning team prediction is worth 1 point. Each correct player of the game prediction is worth 3 points. Each correct final score prediction is worth 5 points. If you get all three correct, you'll receive 15 points.
Good luck!