Let’s keep the good times rollin’ gang!
Time: 7:00pm ET
Place: PNC Arena
Watch: BSDET, BSSouth
Listen: 97.1
Wings are having a jubilant January after a disappointing December. The only slightly sour note is the Leafs bumped the Wings down to 4th in the Atlantic, we’ve got 51 points to tie with the Bolts (but with one game in hand). That doesn’t really matter right now, but for the hype value we want to grab third back. Kane being out has disrupted the offense a bit, the forward lines may see some in-game shuffling if the first half doesn’t go our way. Similarly, the defense has been off without Walman. Hopefully, there is an update in this post saying he’s confirmed back in the lineup.
The Hurricanes are in a similar spot, 3rd in the Metro with 53 points and also 7-2-1 in their last 10. Overall our records are also very similar: Wings (23-16-5) vs. Canes (24-14-5). Also going on hot and cold streaks. Who has had the harder schedule? I don’t know, go ask Prashanth or some other analytics smarty pants 😉
The Canes haven’t played since Monday, another example of the NHL schedule being just terrific. They played the Kings and, unlike the Battle of the 10 Kings, it didn’t go Bunting’s way. The Canes lost 5-2.
Predicted Lineups
Red Wings
Perron-Larkin-Raymond
Fabbri-Compher-DeBrincat
Rasmussen-Copp-Fischer
Sprong-Veleno-Kostin
Gostisbehere/Walman-Seider
Chiarot-Petry
Maatta-Holl
Lyon
Reimer
Hurricanes
Svechnikov-Aho-Teravainen
Bunting-Kotkaniemi-Fast
Martinook-Staal-Jarvis
Noesen-Drury-Necas (GTD)
Slavin-Burns
Skjei-Pesce
Orlov-Chatfield
Raanta
Perets (Norfolk Admirals call-up)
Kochetkov and Andersen are both injured