Morning Skate: Coyotes at Red Wings Preview

7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena

Detroit, MI

TV: Fox Sports Detroit, NHL Network

Radio: 97.1 The Ticket

Coyotes Blog: Five For Howling

After starting the season with 3 games in 4 nights, and a dumpster fire of a game against the Boston Bruins (thanks Jeff), the Wings had 4 days off to practice, rest, and flush that game down the toilet. The Coyotes are 1-2 on the season, being outscored 11-6 so far this season. Their most recent 6-1 loss came from the New York Islanders on Tuesday night. In an attempt to get things going in the right direction, the Coyotes recalled Brandon Yip and Tim Kennedy from the AHL, and sent Chris Brown and Lucas Lessio down to the Pirates. Tippett’s goal is to stabilize his roster with as many veterans as possible.

The last time the Wings and Coyotes met was April 22, 2013 with the Wings shutting them out 4-0, scoring 3 power play goals and an empty netter. The soon to be “Arizona Coyotes” made some roster moves last summer that included getting rid of Raffi Torres, Jason LaBarbera, Steve Sullivan, Matthew Lombardi and Boyd Gordon. While the Red Wings added Daniel Alfredsson and Stephen Weiss to their ranks, the Coyotes added to their roster, rookie Lucas Lessio, noted gentleman Mike Ribeiro, and former Sharks back up goaltender, Thomas Greiss.

Patrick Eaves, Darren Helm, and Jordin Tootoo all skated in practice yesterday, and while Eaves and Helm (even when healthy aren’t illegible to play until October 23rd against Ottawa, Jordin Tootoo is cleared to play; and with him coming off IR, that brings us back up to the roster limit. Before Eaves, Helm, or Gustavsson can be put back on the roster, someone will have to come off. Tootoo won’t play tonight though, and the only lineup change will Mikael Samuelsson back in for Tomas Tatar.

I have a lots of fond memories of playing Phoenix Coyotes, like this one, or this one where Datsyuk makes Keith Yandle and Ilya Bryzgalov look like peewee players, or this other one.

The Expected Lineup

Forwards

Defensemen

Goaltenders

Scratches: Brian Lashoff, Tomas Tatar Jordin Tootoo

Injuries: Jonas Gustavsson (groin)

LTIR: Darren Helm (body), Patrick Eaves (knee and ankle)

Opponent Outlook

Player to Fear: Paul Bissonn… Haha just kidding. In 62 games against the Wings, Shane Doan has 35 points (13G, 22A) and is the Coyotes career leader against Detroit. He usually gets up to play the Wings, and as their captain he’ll have plenty of motivation to have a big game.

X-Factor: Radim Vrbata. He’s been the Coyotes most offensive player so far this season with 4 points in 3 games.

Familiar Faces: This is all too familiar.

Thumbs up (One Thing I Like About Phoenix): I like that Jobing.com arena is the Wings’ home on the road.

Thumbs down (One Thing I Don’t Like About Phoenix): Paul Bissonnette and his stupid twitter account.

Bullets of Knowledge

• The Red Wings are 65-41-22-3 all time against Phoenix
• Johan Franzen has 7 points (5G-2A) over the last 6 games against Phoenix
• Pavel Datsyuk has 8 points (1G-7A) over the last 6 games against Phoenix
• Pavel Datsyuk has 57 points (14G-43A) in 41 career games against Phoenix
• Henrik Zetterberg has 46 points (17G 29A) in 37 career games against Phoenix
• Jimmy Howard is 8-1-2 in 11 career games against Phoenix with a .934 SV% and 2.11 GAA
• Jimmy Howard also got his 100th career in a shootout victory over the Coyotes./

Prediction: The WiiM prediction contest is back! Two of our WiiM’ers are undertaking the task of keeping track of all the predictions and you can click on the link above to read all the details. How will it work? Just leave your predictions in the comments of the morning skates before the game starts. Tell us what you think the final score will be, which team you think will win, and who you think the POTG (Player of the game) will be. For example: 4-2 Red Wings, Henrik Zetterberg POTG.