Morning Skate: Red Wings At Blackhawks
Game 56
7:30p ET, United Center
Chicago,IL
TV: NBCSN
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Blackhawks Blog: Second City Hockey
The Wings are in the Windy City to take on their old division foes, the Chicago Blackhawks. Since the Wings move to the East, they've gone from playing Chicago 6 times a season, down to merely 2 and it feels odd.
Wait, what's that sound? That's Teemu Pulkkinen's goal song! Yes, Teeny Pokemon has been re-called from Grand Rapids and will hopefully score more goals than the entire Red Wings team did in their last game.
Chicago won their last game, beating the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 while the Wings lost to Carey Price 2-0. You don't have to be a mathlete to know you can't win a game if you don't score any goals, so Mike Babcock is doing the line shuffle tonight in addition to throwing the top scorer in the AHL into the mix.
The Hawks have at least a point in their last 6 games, and thanks to J.J. we now have a streaking Marian Hossa to deal with. Hossa had gone 5 games without a point and had 10 goals on the season.
Wait... Justin Abdelkader has more goals than Marian Hossa? How does that even happen?
— Winging It In Motown (@wingingitmotown) February 8, 2015 Later that day Marian Hossa has 2 goals.
The next game Marian Hossa has 2 goals.
The next game Marian Hossa has 2 goals.
Hey... I'm sorry about the Abdelkader quip. How do I turn Marian Hossa back off? I didn't mean this.
— Winging It In Motown (@wingingitmotown) February 12, 2015 The next game Marian Hossa has a goal and an assist.
Thanks a lot, J.J.
We know Teemu Pulkkinen is in, but no confirmation yet on who's out. I'm hoping it's Joakim Andersson so let's go with that for now. Pulkkinen was practicing on the 2nd power play unit with Datsyuk, Tatar, Sheahan, and DeKeyser.
The Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Justin Abdelkader | Henrik Zetterberg | Teemu Pulkkinen |
| Darren Helm | Pavel Datsyuk | Tomas Tatar |
| Gustav Nyquist | Riley Sheahan | Stephen Weiss |
| Drew Miller | Luke Glendening | Tomas Jurco |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Danny DeKeyser | Kyle Quincey |
| Alexey Marchenko | Brendan Smith |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Jonas Gustavsson |
Scratches: Danny Cleary, Joakim Andersson
Injuries: Johan Franzen (headaches)
Forwards
| Brandon Saad | Jonathan Toews | Marian Hossa |
| Kris Versteeg | Brad Richards | Patrick Kane you loan me 10 cents |
| Bryan Bickell | Andrew Shawty Fiya Burnin | Ryan Hartman |
| Patrick Sharp | Freddy Kruger | Ben Smith |
Defensemen
| Duncan Keith | Michael Rozsival |
| Niklas Hjalmarsson | Johnny Oduya want to build a snowman |
| Kyle Cuminskey | Brent Seabrook |
Goaltenders
| Corey Crawford (starting) |
| Antti Matter Raanta |
| BLACKHAWKS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 35-18-4 (74 pts; 3rd in Central) | Record | 31-14-10 (72 pts; 3rd in Atlantic) |
| 2.90 (8th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.87 (9th in NHL) |
| 2.26 (2nd) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.42 (5th) |
| 18.9% (13th) | Power Play % | 26.0% (1st) |
| 87.9% (1st) | Penalty Kill % | 83.0% (10th) |
| Patrick Kane (27 goals) | Goal Leader | Tomas Tatar (23 goals) |
| Patrick Kane (63 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (49 points) |
- The Red Wings are 365-266-84-13 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time in the regular season against Chicago.
- Last 10 Games: Detroit 6-3-1, Chicago 5-3-2/
- Jimmy Howard is 5-8-5 with a .905 SV% and 2.76 GAA in 19 career games against the Blackhawks. /
How many times will Johan Franzen and Marian Hossa be compared today?
| Less than 100. Come on now, people have let that go by now. | 97 |
| 101-500. What's happened has happened and Franzen's not Hossa and Hossa's not here. | 66 |
| 500-10,000. *twitch* That decision still haunts me *twitch* | 47 |
| RAWR THE WINGS SHOULD HAVE FORCED HOSSA TO RE-SIGN AND DITCHED FRANZEN! I WILL NEVER LET IT DIE! RAWR | 167 |