When: 7:30 PM ET
Where: Bell Centre (Montreal)
TV: FS-D, TSN2, RDS
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket, 1270 AM CBS Sports Radio
Canadiens Blog: Eyes on the Prize
Game Preview:
The Wings are coming off a hard-fought loss at the hands of the Maple Leafs, 4-3, on Saturday night and will wrap up their mini road trip in Montreal tonight. There hasn’t been much to cheer about in Hockeytown in the New Year, with the team showing their true colors and falling to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings — for all intensive purposes, we will call this one the ‘Battle of the Basement’. The Wings are a pedestrian 1-9-2 in the month of March (OUCH!) and the Habs aren’t playing much better at 3-8-2 this month. The bad news for both teams? They’ve already been eliminated from playoff contention. The good news? Both are very much alive in the Rasmus Dahlin sweepstakes. Perhaps the biggest key to this game will be between the pipes — particularly for the Habs. Carey Price is 0-3-2 in his last five starts and has given up four goals in 17 of 44 games this season. Certainly not the numbers we are used to seeing from the All-Star netminder. However, goals have been scarce for this Wings squad (just 11 in their last five games) and Price has been red hot against the Wings over the course of his career — 12-4-1, 1.98 GAA, .930 SV% and 2 SO.
Key Injuries:
Mike Green of course will miss the remainder of the season while he recovers from surgery on his cervical spine. Many of us thought that this would open the door for a late-season opportunity for Filip Hronek from Grand Rapids (or another call-up for Joe Hicketts), but it seems Jeff Blashill is content with Xavier Ouellet for now…sigh. Victor Mete (finger) and Max Pacioretty (knee) are both expected to miss the remainder of the season with their respective injuries. Philip Danault has been out since March 11 dealing with headaches and he is considered day-to-day.
Projected Lineups:
Detroit Red Wings
Forwards
Tyler Bertuzzi — Henrik Zetterberg — Gustav Nyquist
Darren Helm — Dylan Larkin — Anthony Mantha
Andreas Athanasiou — Frans Nielsen — Justin Abdelkader
Martin Frk — Luke Glendening — Evgeny Svechnikov
Defense
Jonathan Ericsson — Trevor Daley
Danny DeKeyser — Nick Jensen
Niklas Kronwall — Xavier Ouellet
Goalies
Jimmy Howard
Jared Coreau
Scratches: David Booth, Luke Witkowski
Montreal Canadiens
Forwards
Paul Byron — Jonathan Drouin — Brendan Gallagher
Alex Galchenyuk — Jacob de la Rose — Artturi Lehkonen
Nikita Scherbak — Logan Shaw — Charles Hudon
Nicolas Deslauriers — Byron Froese — Daniel Carr
Defense
Mike Reilly — Jeff Petry
Karl Alzner — Noah Juulsen
Jordie Benn — Brett Lernout
Goalies
Carey Price
Antti Niemi
Scratches: Michael McCarron
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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.
First off, if you don’t have an SBN Username, make one! We’d love to have you, plus it’s much easier to track your predictions season-long. Then make your guess on the winning team, final score, and who the Red Wings player of the game will be. Enter the required information into the form below using the formats indicated. 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. Only one submission per person, please. The Red Wings 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 3 points. Each correct final score prediction is worth 5 points. If you get all three correct, you’ll receive 15 points.
Good luck!
