Morning Skate: Arizona Coyotes vs Detroit Red Wings
8:00p ET, Gila River Arena
Glendale, AZ
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Coyotes Blog: Five For Howling
Onto the next one..
Detroit is riding a two-game winning streak currently, and is one of the hottest teams in the NHL over the past 10 games with a record of 8-2-0.
Tonight, The Wings face a showdown in the desert with the Arizona Coyotes. The Yotes have been struggling as of late, and are on the verge of a fire sale to bolster themselves for an impending rebuild. How's about this.. Keith Yandle or OEL can just "accidentally" hop on Red Bird III, and "forget" how to get back to Glendale. Sound good? Thought so.
Anyways, I won't take this team for granted. Even though they're going through a tough time, and I have heard of maybe five of the players on their roster, they still hoist a top 10 power play unit. Detroit has had some woes on the PK as of late, so that could be our Achilles' Heel, if Arizona's goaltending decides it's going to have a ridiculous game.
The Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Gustav Nyquist | Henrik Zetterberg | Justin Abdelkader |
| Darren Helm | Pavel Datsyuk | Tomas Tatar |
| Stephen Weiss | Riley Sheahan | Luke Glendening |
| Drew Miller | Joakim Andersson | Tomas Jurco |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Danny DeKeyser | Kyle Quincey |
| Alexey Marchenko | Brendan Smith |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek (starting) |
| Jonas Gustavsson |
Scratches: Daniel Cleary, Jakub Kindl, Xavier Ouellet
Injuries: Johan Franzen (headaches), Jimmy Howard (groin)
Forwards
| Tobias Reider | Antoine Vermette | Shane Doan |
| Martin Erat | Alexandre Bolduc | Sam Gagner |
| Lauri Korpikoski | Kyle Chipchura | David Moss |
| Lucas Lessio | Brendan Shinnimin | B.J. Crombeen |
Defensemen
| Oliver Ekman-Larsson | Zbynek Michalek |
| Keith Yandle | Michael Stone |
| Andrew Campbell | Connor Murphy |
Goaltenders
| Mike Smith (starting) |
| Louis Domingue |
| Coyotes | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 19-26-7 (45 pts; 6th in Pacific) | Record | 30-12-9 (69 pts; 2nd in Atlantic) |
| 2.27 (26th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.94 (7th in NHL) |
| 3.23 (27th) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.39 (6th) |
| 22.9% (6th) | Power Play % | 25.8% (1st) |
| 77.4% (27thth) | Penalty Kill % | 83.0% (11th) |
| Oliver Ekman-Larsson (15 goals) | Goal Leader | Tomas Tatar (22 goals) |
| Keith Yandle (37 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (47 points) |
- The Red Wings are 47-27-9 (W-L-OT) all-time in the regular season against the Coyotes
- Last 10 Games: Arizona 3-4-3, Detroit 8-2-0/
- Pavel Datsyuk has 58 points (15 goals, 43 assists) in 43 career games against the Coyotes/