Morning Skate: Avalanche at Red Wings
Game 34
6:00p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Avs Blog: Mile High Hockey
It's December and the holidays are upon us. This time of the year is sometimes referred to as the "giving season." Well, the Red Wings are taking that way too literally these days. Just giving away points left and right to opposing teams.
It's been 2 weeks (!) since the Wings last won a game. They've given away 7 whole points during that span. Thankfully, no one else has been doing that great either. The Leafs have cooled down a bit. Montreal and Tampa are in the midst of just being okay. The Atlantic noticed Detroit's struggles and decided to chill out too and let the Wings catch their breath before everyone starts playing well again.
Hopefully the Red Wings can rebound tonight against an Avs team that isn't living up the standards they set last season. December hasn't been kind to Colorado either. They defeated Buffalo last night to bring their December record to a solid 2-3-3. If the Wings fail to take advantage of a bad team at home that's coming in on the 2nd night of a back-to-back… it might be time to call the last two weeks something more than just a slump.
The Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Henrik Zetterberg | Pavel Datsyuk | Justin Abdelkader |
| Tomas Tatar | Riley Sheahan | Tomas Jurco |
| Gustav Nyquist | Darren Helm | Johan Franzen |
| Daniel Cleary | Luke Glendening | Drew Miller |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Danny DeKeyser | Kyle Quincey |
| Jakub Kindl | Brendan Smith |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek (starting) |
| Thomas McCollum |
Scratches: Brian Lashoff & Joakim Andersson
Injuries: Jimmy Howard (lower body), Stephen Weiss (shoulder) & Jonas Gustavsson (shoulder)
Forwards
| Max Talbot | Matt Duchene | Nathan MacKinnon |
| Gabriel Landeskog | Ryan O'Reilly | Danny Briere |
| Alex Tanguay | John Mitchell | Jarome Iginla |
| Cody McLeod | Marc-Andre Cliche | Patrick Bordeleau |
Defensemen
| Jan Hejda | Erik Johnson |
| Nate Guenin | Tyson Barrie |
| Brad Stuart | Zach Redmond |
Goaltenders
| Calvin Pickard (starting) |
| Reto Berra |
| AVALANCHE | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 11-13-8 (30 pts; 6th in West WC) | Record | 17-8-8 (42 pts; 3rd in Atlantic) |
| 2.50 (21st in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.79 (13th in NHL) |
| 3.06 (25th) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.30 (5th) |
| 13.3% (27th) | Power Play % | 22.0% (7th) |
| 86.2% (5th) | Penalty Kill % | 88.4% (2nd) |
| Alex Tanguay (11 goals) | Goal Leader | Gustav Nyquist (14 goals) |
| Alex Tanguay (22 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (27 points) |
- The Red Wings are 63-41-5-6 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time in the regular season against the Colorado Avalanche.
- Last 10 Games: Colorado 3-4-3, Detroit 4-3-3
- Mrazek has never faced the Avs… and he's never won a game at the Joe. He's 0-3-0 in 5 games with a 2.36 GAA and .911 SV%./