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2:00p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: NHLN, FSD
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket // 1270 AM CBS Sports Radio
Capitals Blog: Japers' Rink
I think it is safe to say the Red Wings are not having a good season. Anything short of a Hollywood movie ending over the last 25 games of the season will see them miss the playoffs for the first time in 26 seasons. To top that off this season has seen the loss of two franchise legends in Gordie Howe and Mr. Ilitch. The road to the NHL Lottery for the Wings continues tonight against the NHL’s best team in the Washington Capitals.
Of course, you cannot talk about the Capitals without mentioning The Great Eight Alex Ovechkin. Once again, he leads the team in goals and frankly is just a whole lot of fun to watch play hockey. Braden Holtby is having another fantastic season between the pipes for the Caps and will likely be a finalist for the Vezina Trophy again this year.
This is another in a stretch of difficult games for the Red Wings. Washington is a lot of what the Red Wings of the past were and the ones of the present are not. Offensively they score a ton of goals even strength and have lethal power play. Defensively, while they do not have the same level of defensemen as the Wings of old they get the job done and their goaltending is playing at an elite level most nights.
Red Wings Lineup
Forwards
| Tomas Tatar | Henrik Zetterberg | Anthony Mantha |
| Andreas Athanasiou | Frans Nielsen | Tomas Vanek |
| Dylan Larkin | Darren Helm | Justin Abdelkader |
| Luke Glendening | Riley Sheahan | Steve Ott |
Defensemen
| Dan DeKeyser | Mike Green |
| Brendan Smith | Xavier Ouellet |
| Niklas Kronwall | Nick Jensen |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek |
| Jared Coreau |
Scratches: Tomas Jurco, Ryan Sproul
Injuries:, Jimmy Howard, Jonathan Ericsson, Johan Franzen (LTIR), Joe Vitale (LTIR)
Capitals Lineup
Forwards
| Alex Ovechkin | Nicklas Backstrom | T.J. Oshie |
| Marcus Johansson | Evgeny Kuznetsov | Justin Williams |
| Brett Connolly | Lars Eller | Zachary Sanford |
| Daniel Winnik | Jay Beagle | Tom Wilson |
Defensemen
| Karl Alzner | John Carlson |
| Dimitri Orlov | Matt Niskanen |
| Brooks Orpik | Nate Schmidt |
Goaltenders
| Braden Holtby |
| Philipp Grubauer |
Scratches/Injuries: Andre Burakovsky
The Matchup
| Red Wings | Stat | Capitals |
| 22-25-10 (54 pts, 8th in Atlantic) | Record | 39-11-6 (84 pts, 1st in Metro) |
| 2.37 (26th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 3.41 (2nd in NHL) |
| 3.00 (26th) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.09 (1st) |
| 11.8 (30th) | Power Play % | 22.1 (5th) |
| 80.2 (21st) | Penalty Kill % | 84.5 (t4th) |
| 28.4 (25th) | Shots For Per Game | 29.7 (t16th) |
| 30.8 (t18th) | Shots Against Per Game | 27.9 (6th) |
| 52.4 (4th) | Faceoff % | 50.1 (15th) |
| Vanek/Athanasiou (14) | Goals Leader | Alex Ovechkin (26) |
| Henrik Zetterberg (41) | Points Leader | Nicklas Backstrom (60)) |
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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.
Make your game predictions on the winning team, final score, and who the Wings player of the game will be. Enter the required information into the form below using the formats indicated in the questions. 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. All other submissions after that will be disregarded. Only one submission per person, please. 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 2 points. Each correct final score prediction is worth 5 points. If you get all three correct you'll receive 15 points.