Morning Skate: Red Wings vs Blue Jackets
7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: FSDT, FSOH
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Blue Jackets Blog: The Cannon
Coming off of back-to-back games in which Detroit gave up a total of 10 goals, they fought back for a big win against the Edmonton Oilers. The Wings will look to keep this motor churning tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
A team who has been largely riddled with injuries all season, the Blue Jackets had high hopes of being a contender in their division, but were denied when the health of multiple key players faltered. Detroit is in a very good position to get two points tonight, and with teams in the Atlantic gaining steam, I would say it's very important that they do just that.
The Luke Glendening experiment seems to be continuing on, as he will see top-line minutes with Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Tatar. It is what it is, but I think we all know that Teemu Pulkkinen is the guy that we need up there. Teemu & friends had a great game against Edmonton, so I hope to see that continue in this game, as the Finnish Sultan of Sniping is on a quest to show everyone that he's ready for the NHL.
Columbus traded away one of their top defensemen in James Wisniewski, so I really like the match-ups there. I think it's a good way to get two points, and give the home crowd what they want.
The Expected Lineups (Subject to Change)
Forwards
| Tomas Tatar | Pavel Datsyuk | Luke Glendening |
| Erik Cole | Henrik Zetterberg | Justin Abdelkader |
| Gustav Nyquist | Riley Sheahan | Teemu Pulkkinen |
| Drew Miller | Joakim Andersson | Tomas Jurco |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Kyle Quincey | Danny DeKeyser |
| Brendan Smith | Marek Zidlicky |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Petr Mrazek |
Scratches: Daniel Cleary, Stephen Weiss
Injuries: Johan Franzen (Concussion), Darren Helm (Oblique), Jonas Gustavsson (Concussion), Alexey Marchenko (Oblique)
Forwards
| Rene Borque | Ryan Johansen | Cam Atkinson |
| Brandon Dubinsky | Artem Anisimov | Corey Tropp |
| Scott Hartnell | Alexander Wennberg | Mark Dano |
| Luke Adam | Mark Letestu | Jared Boll |
Defensemen
| Jack Johnson | David Savard |
| Fedor Tyutin | Dalton Prout |
| Kevin Connauton | Cody Goloubeuf |
Goaltenders
| Sergei Bobrovsky |
| Curtis McElhinney |
| BLUE JACKETS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 28-34-4 (60 pts; 7th in Metropolitan) | Record | 37-17-11 (85 pts; 3rd in Atlantic) |
| 2.50 (24th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.91 (7th in NHL) |
| 3.15 (26th) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.51 (11th) |
| 21.3% (6th) | Power Play % | 25.4% (1st) |
| 79.3% (25th) | Penalty Kill % | 81.9% (12th) |
| Nick Foligno (24 goals) | Goal Leader | Tomas Tatar (25 goals) |
| Nick Foligno (58 points) | Points Leader | Pavel and Hank Tied (56 points) |
- The Red Wings are 56-26-1 (W-L-OTL) all-time in the regular season against the Columbus Blue Jackets franchise.
- Last 10 Games: Columbus 2-7-1, Detroit 6-3-1/
- Jimmy Howard is 11-4-3 all-time, with a .932 SV%, 1.83 GAA, and 3 shutouts against the Blue Jackets/