Morning Skate: Red Wings at Avalanche
8:00p ET, Coors Field
Denver, CO
TV: NBC, SN, TVA Sports 2
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket // 1270 AM CBS Sports Radio
Avalanche Blog: Mile High Hockey
The Red Wings are coming off a three-day break before taking on the Avalanche in the better of the two Stadium Series games this year. The rivalry was renewed between the alumni of these two teams last night, and though the wrong team won, it was a lot of fun seeing guys from some of the best clashes in NHL take to the ice again together.
Today, however, the current Red Wings are looking to get two points at altitude. It's the last game before the trade deadline and they've just gone to overtime in each of their last three matchups, as well as in the first meeting between these two teams. They've had the time to rest after barely squeaking by what should have been a tired and easily beatable Columbus team.
The Wings practiced with the following lines on Wednesday, save for Teemu Pulkkinen skating for Darren Helm due to the latter's illness. Jonathan Ericsson makes his triumphant return to the third pairing tonight, and it's assumed Brendan Smith will be the one sitting. After the hit he took in the Blue Jackets game, he might need a little extra time off. Petr Mrazek's starting in goal. I liked seeing him get pissed at the refs in Tuesday's game after those ridiculously quick whistles in OT, but if that happens again tonight, I fully expect Patrick Roy to be unable to contain himself and launch himself onto the ice to go fight the Red Wings netminder, as is his custom.
Red Wings Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Henrik Zetterberg | Pavel Datsyuk | Justin Abdelkader |
| Gustav Nyquist | Riley Sheahan | Tomas Tatar |
| Brad Richards | Andreas Athanasiou | Dylan Larkin |
| Darren Helm | Luke Glendening | Tomas Jurco |
Defensemen
| Kyle Quincey | Danny DeKeyser |
| Niklas Kronwall | Alexey Marchenko |
| Jonathan Ericsson | Mike Green |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek (starting) |
| Jimmy Howard |
Scratches: Teemu Pulkkinen, Brendan Smith
Injuries: Drew Miller (torn meniscus/ACL surgery), Johan Franzen (concussion)
Avalanche Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Mikhail Grigorenko | Matt Duchene | Jarome Iginla |
| Alex Tanguay | Nathan MacKinnon | Gabriel Landeskog |
| Shawn Matthias | Carl Soderberg | Blake Comeau |
| Cody McLeod | John Mitchell | Jack Skille |
Defensemen
| Francois Beauchemin | Erik Johnson |
| Nick Holden | Tyson Barrie |
| Chris Bigras | Andrew Bodnarchuk |
Goaltenders
| Semyon Varlamov (starting) |
| Calvin Pickard |
| AVALANCHE | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 32-27-4 (68 pts; 5th in Central) | Record | 30-20-11 (71 pts; 4th in Atlantic) |
| 2.63 (15th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.48 (21st in NHL) |
| 2.79 (21st) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.51 (10th) |
| 19.3% (13th) | Power Play % | 17.6% (20th) |
| 79.7% (21st) | Penalty Kill % | 81.6% (13th) |
| Matt Duchene (26 goals) | Goals Leader | Dylan Larkin (19 goals) |
| Matt Duchene (48 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (41 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.