2:00p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket/1270 AM
Penguins Blog: PensBurgh
It’s an afternoon game against one of the hottest teams in the NHL and Niklas Kronwall is going to play and be paired with Jonathan Ericsson. Those two will probably going head-to-head with Sidney Crosby’s line. I bet Luke Glendening will shadow Crosby too. This is going to be a disaster.
I’m being a bit over-dramatic with the doom & gloom. It probably won’t be that bad. I do, however, have this game chalked up as a loss for the Red Wings. If they can muster up at least a point, I’ll take it. Things are so tight right now, that every point counts. One regulation loss can change a whole hell of a lot.
Every team that’s truly within striking distance of the Wings is in action today or tonight. Here are how things stand:
Penguins – 88 points (73 GP, @DET)
Islanders – 87 points (73 GP, vs CAR)
Bruins – 86 points (75 GP, @TOR)
Flyers – 85 points (73 GP, @ARI)
Red Wings – 85 points (74 GP, vs PIT)
Ultimately, we’re big fans of Mike Babcock, Bill Peters and the Coyotes tonight. I’d really hate to see the Wings waste their opportunity to catch the Bruins. The game in Toronto might be more important than whatever happens in Arizona.
Man… please, please, please get some points today.
Detroit Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Justin Abdelkader | Henrik Zetterberg | Dylan Larkin |
| Darren Helm | Pavel Datsyuk | Anthony Mantha |
| Gus Nyquist | Riley Sheahan | Tomas Tatar |
| Andreas Athanasiou | Luke Glendening | Brad Richards |
Defensemen
| Brendan Smith | Mike Green |
| Danny DeKeyser | Kyle Quincey |
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek |
| Jimmy Howard |
Scratches: Teemu Pulkkinen, Tomas Jurco, Alexey Marchenko
Injuries: Drew Miller, Johan Franzen
Penguins Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Chris Kunitz | Sidney Crosby | Patric Hornqvist |
| Carl Hagelin | Nick Bonino | Phil Kessel |
| Tom Kuhnhackl | Matt Cullen | Bryan Rust |
| Conor Sheary | Eric Fehr | Beau Bennett |
Defensemen
| Trevor Daley | Kris Letang |
| Ben Lovejoy | Brian Dumoulin |
| Ian Cole | Justin Schultz |
Goaltenders
| Marc-Andre Fleury |
| Matt Murray |
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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.
