7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: FSD
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket // 1270 AM CBS Sports Radio
Stars Blog: Five For Howling
The last time we saw the Red Wings they could not find a way to solve Philadelphia Flyers goalie Anthony Stolarz, making his second career NHL start, as he shut the door on them enroute to a 1-0 OT Flyers win. Despite some inconsistent play the Wings are actually 5-2-3 in their last 10 games and are a mere two points out of third place in the Atlantic (they are seven out of a Wild Card spot…the Metro is scary good right now).
Arizona on the other hand comes in after getting shellacked 7-0 in Pittsburgh last night and are 3-4-3 in their last 10. They are currently tied for dead last in the West, seven points off the Wild Card pace and 11 points back of the third place Calgary Flames in the Pacific Division. Offensively they lean very heavily on their top line of Tobias Rieder, Martin Hanzal and Radim Vrbabta, especially now with Brad Richardson and Max Domi out with injuries. Of course the player most Red Wings fans will want to see is 18 year old rookie defenseman Jakub Chychrun. In case you were kidnapped by aliens before the draft this summer and just now escaped, the Red Wings had the opportunity to draft Chychrun but decided to use that pick to help off load Pavel Datsyuk’s contract in order to free up cap space.
Typically this would be the kind of game that a team struggling to find consistent offense like the Red Wings would look to hopefully figure some things out. Arizona has had a lot of issues keeping pucks off their goalie and out of their net. Of course, the Wings have seen this kid of setup before this season and were not able to take advantage of it. With tougher teams, a long road trip and potential injury returnees looming in the not too far off distance this might be the last best chance for some struggling Red Wings players to get going and prove they deserve a regular spot in the lineup.
Red Wings Lineup
Forwards
Tomas Tatar |
Henrik Zetterberg |
Anthony Mantha |
Dylan Larkin |
Frans Nielsen |
Luke Glendening |
Gustav Nyquist |
Riley Sheahan |
Tomas Vanek |
Andreas Athanasiou |
Steve Ott |
Tomas JUrco |
Defensemen
Danny DeKesyer |
Mike Green |
Niklas Kronwall |
Xavier Ouellet |
Brian Lashoff |
Alexey Marchenko |
Goaltenders
Jimmy Howard |
Petr Mrazek |
Scratches: Drew Miller, Ryan Sproul
Injuries: Jonathan Ericsson (back spasms), Justin Abdelkader (knee), Darren Helm (shoulder), Tyler Bertuzzi (ankle), Brendan Smith (foot), Johan Franzen (concussion), Joe Vitale (concussion)
Coyotes Lineup
Forwards
Tobias Rieder |
Martin Hanzal |
Radim Vrbata |
Brendan Perlini |
Christian Dvorak |
Shane Doan |
Lawson Crouse |
Jordan Martinook |
Jamie McGinn |
Laurent Dauphin |
Josh Jooris |
Ryan White |
Defensemen
Oliver Ekman-Larsson |
Michael Stone |
Alex Goligoski |
Anthony DeAngelo |
Jakob Chychrun |
Luke Schenn |
Goaltenders
Mike Smith |
Louis Domingue |
Scratches: Peter Holland
Injuries: David Bolland (lower-body), Brad Richardson (broken leg), Max Domi (upper-body)
Mor
RED WINGS |
THE MATCHUP |
COYOTES |
13-12-4 (30 pts, t4th in the Atlantic) |
Record |
9-14-5 (23 pts;7th in the Pacific) |
2.28 (26th in NHL) |
Goals Per Game |
2.22 (t27th in NHL) |
2.66 (14th) |
Goals Against Per Game |
3.04 (28th) |
14.4% (25th) |
Power Play % |
13.9% (t26th) |
84.9% (5th) |
Penalty Kill % |
80.7% (20th) |
28.1 (29th) |
Shots For Per Game |
28.4 (t26th) |
31.2 (t22nd) |
Shots Against Per Game |
35.4 (30th) |
52.2 (4th) |
Faceoff % |
47.8 (27th) |
Dylan Larkin (9) |
Goals Leader |
Radim Vrbata (8) |
Zetterberg (20) |
Points Leader |
Radim Vrbata (18) |
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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.