7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: FS-D, TVAS
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket/1270 AM
Caps Blog: Japers’ Rink
One of the greatest Red Wings of all time will be honored tonight at the Joe. After being inducted into the Hall of Fame last night, Sergei Fedorov takes center stage in Hockeytown and he gets to do it in front of two of his former teams.
While Fedorov will be cheered and will probably drop the ceremonial puck, the Red Wings can’t afford to drop another two points. If you ask me, the Wings were the better team for most of their game against the Dallas Stars. Without question they were the better team in the final 40 minutes. The score doesn’t tell the whole story in that one.
The ideal follow up to that loss is another strong performance tonight. Except this strong performance needs to be for a full 60. The Capitals are a good team. They’re one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference. Can’t dig a hole again and start late against them. For as much as we love the Russian that’s being honored before the game, we’ll surely hate the Russian on the opposing team, Alex Ovechkin. Which by the way, you just know he’s going to score tonight at break Fedorov’s record for most goals by a Russian-born player. I actually think that’s cool if he does it while #91 is in the building. Let’s just hope it doesn’t impact the outcome too much.
The Wings lineup should look pretty similar to Sunday. Pavel Datsyuk practiced yesterday and skated on a line with Henrik Zetterberg and Dylan Larkin (Two Goats and a Kid Line, anyone?). Datsyuk isn’t ready to go, but it’s good to see him practicing. He should be back this weekend. Brendan Smith sat out due to illness, his status is unclear for tonight. Let’s assume he sits. Andreas Athanasiou will be back in again. Tomas Jurco will probably continue to sit in the Leino Lounge/Cleary Cabana/Tomas Tap Room. Joakim Andersson needs to play because this isn’t fantasy hockey. Someone has to defend. Someone has to block shots. Someone has to kill penalties.
Oh and hey, let’s not forget that Mike Green is playing against his old team. Tonight would be a great time for him to score his first goal as a Red Wing.
Detroit’s Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Justin Abdelkader | Henrik Zetterberg | Dylan Larkin |
| Gus Nyquist | Riley Sheahan | Tomas Tatar |
| Joakim Andersson | Andreas Athanasiou | Teemu Pulkkinen |
| Drew Miller | Luke Glendening | Darren Helm |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Mike Green |
| Danny DeKeyser | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Jakub Kindl | Alexey Marchenko |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek |
| Jimmy Howard |
Scratches: Tomas Jurco, Brendan Smith
Injuries: Pavel Datsyuk, Kyle Quincey, Brad Richards, Johan Franzen, Landon Ferraro
Washington’s Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Alex Ovechkin | Evgeny Kuznetsov | T.J. Oshie |
| Marcus Johansson | Nicklas Backstrom | Andre Burakovsky |
| Jason Chimera | Jay Beagle | Justin Williams |
| Brooks Laich | Chandler Stephenson | Tom Wilson |
Defensemen
| Brooks Orpik | John Carlson |
| Karl Alzner | Matt Niskanen |
| Dmitri Orlov | Nate Schmidt |
Goaltenders
| Braden Holtby |
| Philipp Grubauer |
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Game Day Prediction Contest
Would you like to predict the outcome of the game and potentially become internet famous? Well you’re in luck, because here’s your opportunity. Here’s how it works.
Make your game predictions on the winning team, final score, and who the Wings player of the game will be. Enter the required information into the form below using the formats indicated in the questions. If you don’t use those formats, your answers will be disregarded. All submissions are timestamped and will be accepted only until the official game start time. All other submissions after that will be disregarded. Only one submission per person, please. POTG will be determined by the collective of WiiM writers.
Each correct winning team prediction is worth 1 point. Each correct player of the game prediction is worth 2 points. Each correct final score prediction is worth 5 points. If you get all three correct you’ll receive 15 points.
