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Time: 7:30 P.M.
Place: Joe Louis Arena
TV: NBCSN, Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket, 1270 AM
Sabres Blog: Die By the Blade
Tonight the Buffalo Sabres come to town after their road trip to California for another edition of Battling Basement Dwellers.
The Red Wings flattened the Avalanche on Saturday afternoon and showed they still have some spark left in them as we limp to the end of a disappointing season. Notably, we saw Tatar make himself that much more expensive by scoring his 20th goal of the season.
The Sabres last game ended with a shootout victory against the Ducks, and it took them 10 rounds to finish them off making it the longest shootout in Sabres history. The Sabres struggled to put together a consistent game from start to finish, but had a pretty good third period - and we know the last few minutes of the third period are one of our many weaknesses this season.
Injuries
In injury news, we know Jonathan Ericsson and Ryan Sproul are done for the season, and on Saturday we lost Darren Helm to an undisclosed lower body injury. I’ve read everything from charlie horse to knee injury, and if he’s still out we have Nosek here on an emergency call-up to fill in as needed.
The Sabres have had a never-ending parade of injuries this season, and only had four defensemen at their Sunday practice, and for a while during their game against the Ducks they only had three defensemen. Three. But, reinforcements are on the way from the Rochester Americans so we should find out who those two guys are soon if we don’t know already.
Biggest Loser?
Neither the Sabres nor the Red Wings need these two points, and I’m sure the Sabres would be happy for a higher draft pick to give Jack Eichel a new pal. This has not been a banner season for Sabres head coach Disco Dan Bylsma, to say the least.
So, who wants it the least? Tune in to find out.
Expected Lineups
(Lineups are a pure guess right now, so don’t freak out about Sheahan on the 2nd line just yet. We’ll know more after the teams skate)
Red Wings
Forwards
| Tomas Tatar | Henrik Zetterberg | Gustav Nyquist |
| Anthony Mantha | Frans Nielsen | Riley Sheahan |
| Andreas Athanasiou | Dylan Larkin | Justin Abdelkader |
| Mitch Callahan | Tomas Nosek | Luke Glendening |
Defensemen
| Dan DeKeyser | Nick Jensen |
| Niklas Kronwall | Mike Green |
| Xavier Ouellet | Robbie Russo |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek |
| Jimmy Howard |
Scratches: What are those?
Injuries:, Ryan Sproul, Jonathan Ericsson, Johan Franzen (LTIR), Joe Vitale (LTIR), Mitch Callahan (Day-to-Dayness), Darren Helm (He leg don’t work)
Sabres
Forwards
| Ryan O'Reilly | Jack Eichel | Tyler Ennis |
| Evander Kane | Zemgus Girgensons | Brion Gionta |
| [The ghost of Miroslav Satan] | Sam Reinhart | Matt Moulson |
| Marcus Foligno | Evan Rodrigues | Hudson Fasching |
Defensemen
| Josh Gorges | Rasmus Ristolainen |
| Zach Bogosian | Cody Franson |
| Jake McCabe | Taylor Fedun |
Goaltenders
| Robin Lehner |
| Anders Nilsson |
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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.