Morning Skate: Maple Leafs at Red Wings

Lauren Bedard

• 2 min read Front Page

7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena

Detroit, MI

TV: NBCSN, SN

Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket // 1270 AM CBS Sports Radio

Maple Leafs Blog: Pension Plan Puppets

Well that was fun! The Wings put together one of their best 60-minute performances in quite some time and for the most part were turned away by one of the best goaltenders in the league. It had a feeling of being one of "those games" where you do everything right and can't buy a goal, but also that the Wings were going to get rewarded for their play and pull out the win. Obviously we're all happy the latter happened.

Today is a new day, however, and another Original Six opponent is in town. Mike Babcock's Leafs now hold the exclusive honor of the worst record in the league and are coming off a shutout loss yesterday to the Senators. Interestingly enough, their power play also ranks dead last at a paltry 15.1%, though I'm sure that has more to do with personnel than systematics.

Jimmy Howard will be in net, but we're not expecting any lineup changes save for some shuffling on the defensive pairs. Speaking of which, here's what we know on Kronwall so far:

The MRI results are expected this morning, but it sounds like the injury is far less severe than it first appeared. It's believed Xavier Ouellet will get the call in Kronwall's absence, but since the Griffins just played a back-to-back of their own, he'll likely sit and Marchenko will draw into the lineup after being scratched in three of the last four games.

Red Wings Expected Lineups

Forwards

Justin Abdelkader Henrik Zetterberg Dylan Larkin
Tomas Tatar Pavel Datsyuk Andreas Athanasiou
Gustav Nyquist Riley Sheahan Teemu Pulkkinen
Darren Helm Luke Glendening Brad Richards


Defensemen

Danny DeKeyser Kyle Quincey
Brendan Smith Mike Green
Jonathan Ericsson Alexey Marchenko


Goaltenders

Jimmy Howard (starting)
Petr Mrazek

Scratches: Tomas Jurco

Injuries: Drew Miller (torn meniscus/ACL surgery), Johan Franzen (concussion), Niklas Kronwall (lower-body injury)

Maple Leafs Expected Lineups

Forwards

Nikita Soshnikov Nazem Kadri Leo Komarov
Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau William Nylander Zach Hyman
Colin Greening Brooks Laich Peter Holland
Milan Michalek Ben Smith Michael Grabner


Defensemen

Jake Gardiner Morgan Rielly
Martin Marincin Connor Carrick
Rinat Valiev Frank Corrado


Goaltenders

Jonathan Bernier (starting)
Garret Sparks

MAPLE LEAFS THE MATCH-UP RED WINGS
22-34-11 (55 pts; 8th in Atlantic) Record 34-23-11 (79 pts; 4th in Atlantic)
2.28 (29th in NHL) Goals Per Game 2.51 (22nd in NHL)
2.91 (25th) Goals Against Per Game 2.59 (15th)
15.1% (30th) Power Play % 17.2% (22nd)
80.5% (19th) Penalty Kill % 80.5% (18th)
Leo Komarov (19 goals) Goals Leader Dylan Larkin (20 goals)
Nazem Kadri (37 points) Points Leader Henrik Zetterberg (43 points)

Let's Go Red Wings!!!

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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.