Morning Skate: Kings at Red Wings
7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: FS-D+
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket/1270 AM
King Blog: Jewels From The Crown
It's cup check night at the Joe.
The Red Wings will renew acquaintances with the Los Angeles Kings and they'll do so for the first time with Milan Lucic wearing black and white. Lucic has done a solid job for the Kings so far this season. At least it appears that way just looked at some of the numbers. He's scored in 3 of their last 4 games and, apparently, the team is 6-0-0 when the puts the puck in the back of the net. So the Wings should make sure they don't let that guy score.
Lots of changes for the Wings in the lineup tonight. Old man Brad Richards is supposed to return from his back injury (Andres Athanasiou was sent back to Grand Rapids). He skated with Pavel Datsyuk and Teemu Pulkkinen yesterday. I don't hate this... but I also don't love it. The line screams "sloooooooow" mainly due to the two older guys. However, I like the idea of the two old, slow guys setting up Pulkkinen all night with one timers and goals galore. The Kid Line that really isn't full of kids anymore is now the 3rd line. I would like to think that trio can do well against other 3rd lines out there. But let's be honest, Luke Glendening is really centering the 1st line so everything will be out of whack. Just score more than one freakin' goal and you'll win the game (probably). Scoring is the key in hockey. Do that and you usually have a good chance to win.
Oh yeah... welcome back Brendan Smith. I'm the only one that is likely happy to see you. Don't screw up tonight please. Just don't.
Detroit's Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Justin Abdelkader | Henrik Zetterberg | Dylan Larkin |
| Brad Richards | Pavel Dastyuk | Teemu Pukkinen |
| Gus Nyquist | Riley Sheahan | Tomas Tatar |
| Drew Miller | Luke Glendening | Darren Helm |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Mike Green |
| Danny DeKeyser | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Brendan Smith | Alexey Marchenko |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek |
| Jimmy Howard |
Scratches: Tomas Jurco (spilled coffee on Blashill's new suit/conditioning stint), Joakim Andersson, Jakub Kindl
Injuries: Kyle Quincey, Johan Franzen, Landon Ferraro
Los Angeles' Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Tanner Pearson | Anze Kopitar | Marian Gaborik |
| Milan Lucic | Jeff Carter | Tyler Toffoli |
| Dustin Brown | Nick Shore | Trevor Lewis |
| Kyle Clifford | Andy Andreoff | Jordan Nolan |
Defensemen
| Brayden McNabb | Drew Doughty |
| Jake Muzzin | Alec Martinez |
| Derek Forbort | Jamie McBain |
Goaltenders
| Jonathan Quick |
| Jhonas Enroth |
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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.
Make your game predictions on the winning team, final score, and who the Wings player of the game will be. Enter the required information into the form below using the formats indicated in the questions. 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. All other submissions after that will be disregarded. Only one submission per person, please. 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 2 points. Each correct final score prediction is worth 5 points. If you get all three correct you'll receive 15 points.