Morning Skate: Islanders vs Red Wings
2:00p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
NYI Blog: Lighthouse Hockey
We are playing hockey this afternoon.
Yes, it is a 2pm start, and yes we know what that means. The narratives will overflow us all. The inevitable "Red Wings aren't awake yet" 20 minutes into the game is upon us. But who cares? I like the matchup. You've got a team in the Wings who are atop the NHL for power-play percentage, against a team who is dead last in the penalty-kill. This game will fall heavily on goaltending. NYI scores a lot, and Petr Mrazek has been everything but a brick wall as of late. Defense will have to play tight, and play fast. After a crazy day yesterday with roster moves, we have a new face coming to the lineup. Alexey Marchenko will make his 2nd career NHL start, and his 1st start of the season. The Russian Right-Hander has 17 points at the AHL level this season, and has been very dominant at that level. I'm excited to watch him play, whether it's a showcase or not.
Ugly loss against the Lightning only mean that the Red Wings could come back with some snarl (maybe.) A big win here would set a good tone for the rest of the season.
The Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Gustav Nyquist | Henrik Zetterberg | Justin Abdelkader |
| Darren Helm | Pavel Datsyuk | Tomas Tatar |
| Stephen Weiss | Riley Sheahan | Luke Glendening |
| Drew Miller | Joakim Andersson | Tomas Jurco |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Danny DeKeyser | Kyle Quincey |
| Alexey Marchenko | Brendan Smith |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek (starting) |
| Thomas McCollum |
Scratches: Daniel Cleary, Jakub Kindl
Injuries: Johan Franzen (headaches), Jimmy Howard (groin) & Jonas Gustavsson (shoulder)
Forwards
| Mikhail Grabovski | John Tavares | Josh Bailey |
| Anders Lee | Frans Nielsen | Ryan Strome |
| Michael Grabner | Brock Nelson | Nikolay Kulemin |
| Matt Martin | Casey Cizikas | Cal Clutterbuck |
Defensemen
| Calvin de Haan | Travis Hamonic |
| Nick Leddy | Johnny Boychuk |
| Thomas Hickey | Brian Strait |
Goaltenders
| Chad Johnson (starting) |
| Jaroslav Halak |
| ISLANDERS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 32-15-1 (65 pts; 1st in Metro) | Record | 27-11-9 (63 pts; 3rd in Atlantic) |
| 3.15 (3rd in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.92 (9th in NHL) |
| 2.79 (21st) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.47 (8th) |
| 19.2% (12th) | Power Play % | 25.0% (1st) |
| 73.7% (30th) | Penalty Kill % | 82.8% (10th) |
| John Tavares (23 goals) | Goal Leader | Tomas Tatar (21 goals) |
| John Tavares (48 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (44 points) |
- The Red Wings are 26-22-2 (W-L-OT) all-time in the regular season against the New York Islanders at the Joe Louis Arena.
- Last 10 Games: New York 6-4-0, Detroit 8-2-0/
- Petr Mrazek is a career 0-2-0 against The Isles./