Morning Skate: Red Wings vs Coyotes
7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: FSDT
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Coyotes Blog: Five For Howling
It's been a rough stretch for Detroit over the last 10 games, there's no hiding that. They're below 500 in that span, and have hit a bit of a slump. We got ourselves a pretty great win against St. Louis on Sunday afternoon, broken stick or not. We're in the final stretch, and wins are at a premium right now. Arizona isn't exactly a team who is looking to win, they've sold off a couple of key assets since we last saw them, sending Antoine Vermette to Chicago, and Keith Yandle to New York. That still doesn't mean Detroit should come in and play down to this team, because we all know what happens when they do that. Unfortunately, Pavel Datsyuk will not be in tonight. Hopefully we get him back this week, but the good news is that Darren Helm is okay, and he had a kid! Everyone loves babies, right?! Well, as long as they're not Blues fans, of course.
I think we all have a pretty good idea of who the Wings might see in the first round, so at this point it should be imperative to get all these kinks worked out, and start firing on all cylinders. Since the trade deadline, it seems like something has been missing. It's funny because Ken Holland goes out, and gets two players in Erik Cole and Marek Zidlicky that makes the team better, and somehow things just get a bit, well, I dunno... Bland? Not very good? Regardless, if we're gonna make shit happen this year, the team simply needs to figure out how to get this behind them. I'll take the win on Sunday as a great way to start that. Let the good times roll, gang. We need a big fat W tonight.
The Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Justin Abdelkader | Henrik Zetterberg | Erik Cole |
| Tomas Tatar | Riley Sheahan | Darren Helm |
| Gustav Nyquist | Joakim Andersson | Teemu Pulkkinen |
| Drew Miller | Luke Glendening | Tomas Jurco |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Danny DeKeyser | Kyle Quincey |
| Brendan Smith | Marek Zidlicky |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Petr Mrazek |
Scratches: Daniel Cleary, Jakub Kindl, & Stephen Weiss
Injuries: Johan Franzen (concussion), Jonas Gustavsson (concussion), Pavel Datsyuk (lower-body)
Forwards
| Sam Gagner | Kyle Chipchura | Shane Doan |
| Tobias Rieder | Marc Arcobello | David Moss |
| Lauri Korpikoski | Justin Hodgman | Craig Cunningham |
| Tye McGinn | Joe Vitale | B.J. Crombeen |
Defensemen
| Oliver Ekman-Larsson | Michael Stone |
| Klas Dahlbeck | John Moore |
| Andrew Campbell | Connor Murphy |
Goaltenders
| Mike Smith (Starting) |
| Louis Domingue |
| COYOTES | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 21-44-8 (50 pts; 7th in Pacific) | Record | 38-19-11 (87 pts; 3rd in Atlantic) |
| 1.97 (29th NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.83 (10th in NHL) |
| 3.25 (28th) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.55 (13th) |
| 20.1% (7th) | Power Play % | 25.0% (1st) |
| 78.2% (26th) | Penalty Kill % | 81.4% (15th) |
| Oliver Ekman-Larsson (20 goals) | Goal Leader | Tomas Tatar (26 goals) |
| Oliver Ekman-Larsson (36 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (59 points) |
- The Red Wings are 66-43-22-3 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time in the regular season against the Arizona Coyotes.
- Last 10 Games: Detroit 4-6-0, Arizona 1-8-1
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- Jimmy Howard is 8-3-2, with a .928 SV% and 2.33 GAA, with one shutout against the Coyotes in his career./
LGRW