Morning Skate: Canucks at Red Wings
Game 24
2:00p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroir, MI
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Canucks Blogs: Nucks Misconduct
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, please pull up a seat, kick off your shoes, and grab a beverage of your choice as we prepare ourselves for a Sunday afternoon hockey game. Now, you may be concerned because the Wings don't have a great record when it comes to afternoon games, but this is the not the same Wings team of the past, and this team will surely come prepared to bring their 7 o'clock game to a 2 o'clock start.... I hope.
The Wings mounted an impressive comeback against the Devils on Friday night and we're finally getting to see what the nearly-mythical "healthy" Red Wings can do. The shoot out win in Jersey gave the Wings their first three game win streak of the season, which sounds a little bit deceiving considering they've only lost 5 games in regulation all season. The Canucks shut out the Blue Jackets on Friday night in Columbus and are also on a three game win streak.
Mike Babcock is changing his lines up a little bit, moving Pavel Datsuk up to center the top line while Johan Franzen moved down to the 3rd line. It appears that Stephen Weiss may center that 3rd line and move back into his true position. Tomas Jurco is still banished to the "4th" / checking / Glendening line where he's getting very little ice time (6:46 last game) while still putting up points and making that line more offensively dangerous than it's ever been.
The Canucks are heating up and look like they may have finally got their poop in a group; I just wish they could have waited until after they played us to do it. I'm expecting a hard fought, close game that the Wings win.
Update: Brendan Smith will return to the lineup this afternoon and Xavier Ouellet has been sent back to Grand Rapids.
The Expected Lineups (subject to change... Duh)
Forwards
| Henrik Zetterberg | Pavel Datsyuk | Justin Abdelkader |
| Tomas Tatar | Riley Sheahan | Gustav Nyquist |
| Darren Helm | Stephen Weiss | Johan Franzen |
| Tomas Jurco | Luke Glendening | Drew Miller |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Danny DeKeyser | Brendan Smith |
| Kyle Quincey | Jakub Kindl |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Petr Mrazek |
Scratches: Brian Lashoff, Joakim Andersson, & Daniel Cleary
Injuries: Jonas Gustavsson (shoulder)
Forwards
| Daniel Sedin | Henrik Sedin | Radim Vrbata |
| Chris Higgins | Nick Bonino | Alexandre Burrows |
| Shawn Matthias | Brad Richardson | Linden Vey |
| Derek Dorsett | Bo Horvat | Jannik Hansen |
Defensemen
| Alexander Edler | Chris Tanev |
| Luca Sbisa | Kevin Bieksa |
| Ryan Stanton | Yannick Weber |
Goaltenders
| Drew Miller's Brother (starting) |
| Eddie Lack |
| CANUCKS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 16-6-1 (33 pts; 1st in Pacific) | Record | 13-5-5 (31 pts; 3rd in Atlantic) |
| 3.04 (4th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.96 (7th in NHL) |
| 2.61 (16th) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.39 (10th) |
| 17.8% (19th) | Power Play % | 21.5% (9th) |
| 85.9% (5th) | Penalty Kill % | 86.8% (4th) |
| Radim Vrbata (10 goals) | Goal Leader | Gustav Nyquist (10) |
| Henrik Sedin (22 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (21 points) |
- The Red Wings are 86-54-18-6 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time in the regular season against the Vancouver Canucks.
- Last 10 Games: Detroit 7-2-1, Vancouver 7-2-1
- Howard is 11-5-2 with a 2.52 GAA and .913 SV% and 1 Shut out in 18 career games against the Canucks./