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7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: FSD+, NHLN-US
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket // 1270 AM CBS Sports Radio
Islanders Blog: Lighthouse Hockey
It’s been nearly three weeks since I’ve been able to watch a Detroit Red Wings game, and hoo boy what a three weeks it’s been. Three wins in a row against tough opponents followed up by three straight OT losses, a shutout at the hands of the Leafs, and Tuesday’s loss to New Jersey.
The New York Islanders have also been busy. They finally fired head coach Jack Capuano, have gone 5-0-1 since his replacement Doug Weight’s takeover, got the news that they may need to start house hunting again soon, and signed goalie Thomas Greiss to a three-year deal.
Oh, and I guess the All-Star Break happened somewhere in there too. Was that exciting?
Speaking of All-Stars, Detroit’s very own Frans Nielsen will be facing off against his former team tonight. He got to hang out with old buddy John Tavares in Los Angeles, but now it’s time to drop all that “friends” junk and show them what these basement-dwellers can do.
Er, yeah. Let’s address that fun elephant in the room. The Red Wings are currently dead last in both the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference. They remain the only team in the East to have not cracked the 50-point mark so far. It’s a pretty dreary outlook, my friends, except for the hilarity of this conference that only has us nine points out of the third wild-card position for the playoffs. Bananas.
At least in our current sorrows, we can take solace in the fact that Colorado fans are infinitely sadder. If the Red Wings are in the basement, the Avalanche are buried six feet beneath our concrete floor.
The Wings are apparently not following #embracethetank, because they’ve been giving a lot of lip service to going on a run to make it back into the playoff picture. They say they’re looking to put a winning streak together, to which I counter that they should try starting easy, like one game in a row.
“Ha!” they cried, “I’ll show you!” And they put Riley Sheahan on the power play.
Red Wings Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Gustav Nyquist | Henrik Zetterberg | Anthony Mantha |
| Tomas Tatar | Frans Nielsen | Dylan Larkin |
| Andreas Athanasiou | Darren Helm | Thomas Vanek |
| Riley Sheahan | Luke Glendening | Justin Abdelkader |
Defensemen
| Danny DeKeyser | Mike Green |
| Jonathan Ericsson | Xavier Ouellet |
| Niklas Kronwall | Nick Jensen |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek (starting) |
| Jared Coreau |
Scratches: Tomas Jurco, Alexey Marchenko, Ryan Sproul
Injuries: Steve Ott (shoulder), Brendan Smith (knee), Jimmy Howard (knee), Johan Franzen (post-concussion syndrome), Joe Vitale (post-concussion syndrome)
Islanders Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Anders Lee | John Tavares | Josh Bailey |
| Anthony Beauvillier | Brock Nelson | Ryan Strome |
| Andrew Ladd | Alan Quine | Jason Chimera |
| Nikolay Kulemin | Casey Cizikas | Shane Prince |
Defensemen
| Nick Leddy | Johnny Boychuk |
| Adam Pelech | Scott Mayfield |
| Calvin DeHaan | Dennis Seidenberg |
Goaltenders
| Thomas Greiss (starting) |
| Jean-Francois Berube |
| ISLANDERS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 22-17-9 (53 pts; 6th in Metropolitan) | Record | 20-21-9 (49 pts; 8th in Atlantic) |
| 2.88 (9th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.40 (25th in NHL) |
| 2.81 (19th) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.96 (24th) |
| 15.1% (26th) | Power Play % | 11.4% (30th) |
| 80.3% (20th) | Penalty Kill % | 80.8% (18th) |
| John Tavares (19 goals) | Goals Leader | Larkin, Tatar, Vanek (12 goals) |
| John Tavares (41 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (35 points) |
Let’s Go Red Wings!!
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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.