Dallas Stars at Detroit Red Wings, Projected Lineups, How to Watch

7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena

Detroit, MI

TV: FSD

Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket // 1270 AM CBS Sports Radio

Stars Blog: Defending Big D

The first quarter of the season is over and after the overtime loss on Saturday the Red Wings find themselves looking up at all but Buffalo and the New York Islanders in the standings. While that sounds bad (and it is not great by any stretch) they are only five points out of third in the Atlantic and three points out of the second Wild Card spot in the East. This season is far from over and if they can find some level of consistency a run for a playoff spot is not unthinkable. Of course, if they are going to do that they are going to have to stop losing players to injury every game. Tyler Bertuzzi and Brendan Smith joined the ranks of the injured after both were hurt during the last game against Montreal, bringing the total of injured Red Wings to six (eight if you include LTIRetired Johan Franzen and Joe Vitale). Both were placed on IR and are expected to miss a month of hockey. It is not all doom and gloom on the injury front however as Tomas Jurco, who was in Grand Rapids on a conditioning stint following off season back surgery, was recalled and it appears he will make his season debut tonight.

The Dallas Stars come into their last regular season game at the Joe on the back end of a back -to-back with some injury and consistency issues of their own. Losing the likes of Mattias Janmark, Ales Hemsky and Jiri Hudler has forced the Stars to lean on their top line of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and team goal scoring leader Patrick Eaves even more. No that is not a typo folks, former Red Wing Patrick Eaves leads the Dallas Stars in goals right now. The last few seasons has produced some very interesting and even entertaining hockey games between these two former Norris Division rivals. Here is hoping tonight is another entertaining game with the good guys coming out on top.

Red Wings Expected Lineup

Forwards

Defensemen

Goaltenders

Scratches:Steve Ott

Injuries: Jimmy Howard (lower body), Alexey Marchenko (upper body), Tyler Bertuzzi (ankle), Andreas Athanasiou (knee), Brendan Smith (knee), Darren Helm (shoulder), Johan Franzen (concussion), Joe Vitale (concussion)

Stars Expected Lineup

Forwards

Defensemen

Goaltenders

Injuries: Ales Hemsky (hip), Jiri Hudler (Illness), Mattias Janmark (knee), Johnny Oduya (lower body)

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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.