8:00p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: Fox Sports Detroit, CNBC, TSN, RDS
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Ducks Blogs: Anaheim Calling & Battle of California
This game is just about as close to being a Must Win without actually being one. If the Red Wings drop both home games and fall down 3 games to 1 in this series… welp… see you later. This series will be over. Mathematically speaking, there would still be a chance, but the odds would not be in Detroit’s favor.
A few months ago, losing Abby to a 2 game suspension would have probably made a lot of people happy. He was “dragging” Pavs down and wasting his final seasons in Detroit. Fast forward to now and losing Abdelkader for 2 games is a pretty big blow to this team. The kid found a nice home on the top line with Tyler’s Euro Twins. He filled the Tomas Holmstrom role on that line quite well. Not the master of tipping pucks, but he went to the net and he pissed some people off. The Wings will miss him. I’d take Bert and place him right in Abby’s spot. If he can handle the abuse out front, let Bert loose. Other options we could see is Cleary moving up and some combination of Bert, Samuelsson and Tootoo rounding out the 2nd and 4th lines. Situations like this really make you miss Drew Miller.
Bottom line, this team needs to find a way to score some ugly goals and keep the puck out of it’s own net. If they do that this series will be tied at 2 and it’s a best of 3 starting out in Anahiem on Wednesday.
The Expected Lineup
Henrik Zetterberg – Pavel Datsyuk – Todd Bertuzzi
Johan Franzen – Valtteri Filppula – Daniel Cleary
Gustav Nyquist – Joakim Andersson – Damien Brunner
Patrick Eaves – Cory Emmerton – Mikael Samuelsson
*
Niklas Kronwall – Jonathan Ericsson
*
Jimmy Howard (starting)
Scratches: Ian White, Carlo Colaiacovo and Jordin Tootoo
Injuries: Danny DeKeyser (thumb), Drew Miller (hand),and Darren Helm (back)
Suspended: Justin Abdelkader (2 games)
- The Red Wings are 15-13 (W-L) all-time against the Anaheim Ducks in the postseason.
- Anaheim last played a Game 4 in 2011 against the Predators. The Ducks won 6-3. Cam Fowler, Corey Perry, Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu, Ryan Getzlaf and some dude named Brandon McMillan scored.
- Last time these two teams met in a Game 4 was May 7, 2009. After falling behind 2 games to 1, the Red Wings pulled out a 6-3 victory. Franzen (2), Samuelsson, Zetterberg and some dud named Marian Hossa (2) scored.
- The Wings are 1-0 against the Ducks in the 2013 postseason when Bertuzzi plays.
- Selanne Sucks.
Prediction: Wings win 4-2.
Let’s Go Red Wings.
