Ready for a shock in the starter’s net? TOO BAD!

Interesting tidbit here on the power play though. Guess it’s too much to ask they BOTH get to play net-front and Abdelkader perhaps does something else?

The good news is that all indications are Mantha is good to go after sitting the last two games with his “nagging injury.”

Projected Lineups

Detroit Red Wings

Gustav Nyquist - Henrik Zetterberg - Tyler Bertuzzi
Tomas Tatar - Dylan Larkin - Anthony Mantha
Darren Helm - Frans Nielsen - Justin Abdelkader
Martin Frk - Andreas Athanasiou

Jonathan Ericsson - Trevor Daley
Danny DeKeyser - Mike Green
Niklas Kronwall - Nick Jensen
Xavier Ouellet

Jimmy Howard
Petr Mrazek

Ottawa Senators

Ryan Dzingel - Derick Brassard - Mark Stone
Mike Hoffman - Matt Duchene - Bobby Ryan
Tom Pyatt - Filip Chlapik - Jean-Gabriel Pageau
Gabriel Dumont - Nate Thompson - Alexandre Burrows

Johnny Oduya - Erik Karlsson
Dion Phaneuf - Cody Ceci
Fredrik Claesson - Thomas Chabot

Craig Anderson
Mike Condon

Keys to the Game

Hard work and stupidity

Mark Stone did not mince words, he described the Sens woes as not caused by poor work ethic but rather by “stupidity and frustration” as they put themselves in terrible situations and cough up goals. We’ve heard things like that about the Wings, but we have the pleasure of also having our kids dumped on for attitude/hustle/heart/grit.

Desperation as motivation

The Sens weren’t supposed to be this bad, but they weren’t really supposed to be as good as they were last season either. They are desperate to turn things around and get a win anywhere and anyway they can, and they can’t really get much worse, so we have to be sure not to do that thing where we nap through the second period. The Wings, at least in public, haven’t given up on their playoff dream for this season but our March schedule should put us out of our misery if we are still hanging around the bubble.

But for tonight, let’s show Future Red Wing Erik Karlsson why he would have fun playing on our team.

Anthony Mantha Strikes Back feat. Dylan Larkin

Mantha was practicing on a line with Larkin and Tatar which could be really, really great. Larkin is getting really good at playing setup man, while still taking his own shots too, so be looking for him to spark Mantha back to his nonstop goal scoring ways. I’ve got a feeling Tatar is ready to break out soon, so this line may crush the Sens on their own.

Let’s Go Red Wings!