Time: 10:30pm ET
Place: SAP Center, San Jose CA
TV: FSD
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket, 1270 AM
Sharks Blog: Fear the Fin
We’re deep into crunch time in the end of the season and I’m really struggling through the totally understandable concept of watching the games wanting to be entertained and also knowing I absolutely should be rooting for the Red Wings to lose in order to get the best possible draft lottery odds.
There’s also an added wrinkle in it for tonight as the Wings will be playing a team whose playoff success can directly influence Detroit’s draft positioning in the future. While there’s no way to know whether it will have any noticeable effect on San Jose making the Cup Final or re-signing in San Jose, this game will have fans thinking about how to make sure one of those things happen so Detroit’s 2020 pick in that trade is the 2nd rounder rather than the third.
Dylan McIlrath was called up yesterday to replace the called-up-but-too-ill-to-play Libor Sulak and could find himself in the lineup if the Wings need an extra body or if Jeff Blashill wants to break up the unstoppable duo of Brian Lashoff and Luke Witkowski. Matt Puempel, Ryan Kuffner, and Taro “Point-Per-Game’ Hirose also remain with the club and at least two (probably all three) will factor into the lineup.
Puck drop is real late tonight on the West coast against the 2nd-best team in the Pacific Division who scores a bunch of goals but doesn’t do great about preventing them. San Jose will be looking to get tuned up to host Vegas in the opening round and Detroit is looking for things to build off of.
Stay tuned to WIIM for updates today and later for tonight’s gamethread. LGRW
