Morning Skate: Red Wings at Flyers
Game 67
1p ET, Wells Fargo Center
Philadelphia, PA
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Flyer Blog: Broad Street Hockey
The Red Wing could really use a win these days. Sure they're 2-3-0 in the month of March, but it just feels like it's a lot worse. They stole a win from the Rangers to start things off and the only good win (if you can even call it that) came against the Oilers. So yeah... winning in convincing style would be real nice today.
Thankfully, Philly is a place that the Wings seem to always win. Oh wait. Just kidding. It's the exact opposite of that. According to our good pal Khan(!) over at MLive, the Wings are losers of 9 straight games in Philly and have been outscored 37-15. That's, uh, not very good. Detroit hasn't won in the City of Brotherly Love since Games 1 and 2 of the 1997 Stanley Cup Final. That was 18 years ago.
EIGHTEEN YEARS.
Let's think about that for a moment. What the hell was going on 18 years ago? Some of our readers quite possibly didn't exist. I was only 9-years-old. Dylan Larkin was only 1. Titanic became, at that time, the highest grossing movie of all-time. The first Harry Potter book debuted. Dennis Rodman kicked a cameraman. Bill Clinton was President. The Undertaker defeated Sycho Sid for the WWE Championship in the main event of WrestleMania XIII. Tiger Woods was actually good at golf and became the youngest player to win The Masters. Mike Tyson bit off Evander Holyfield's ear. Marv Albert bit a woman. El Nino (it's Spanish for The Nino) occured. Chris Farley died. Notorious B.I.G. was killed. Michigan football wasn't a joke. Ellen came out of the closet. Popular toys included Beanie Babies, Pokemon and Tamagotchis. Spice Girls and Hanson were a thing. MMMMMbop, yo.
So yeah... a lot of weird things happened in 1997. It's be cool if the Red Wings could just win so we don't have to wait another 18 years.
Get your sh*t together, gentlemen.
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 | Stephen Weiss |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Kyle Quincey | Danny DeKeyser |
| Brendan Smith | Marek Zidlicky |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Jonas Gustavsson |
Scratches: Daniel Cleary, Tomas Jurco & Jakub Kindl
Injuries: Darren Helm (oblique), Alexey Marchenko (oblique) & Johan Franzen (concussion)
Forwards
| Brayden Schenn | Claude Giroux | Jakub Voracek |
| Matt Read | Sean Couturier | Wayne Simmonds |
| Ryan White | Michael Raffl | Zac Rinaldo |
| Chris VandeVelde | Pierre-Edouard Bellemare | Vincent Lecavalier |
Defensemen
| Nick Schultz | Mark Streit |
| Nicklas Grossmann | Andrew MacDonald |
| Carlo Colaiacovo | Luke Schenn |
Goaltenders
| Steve Mason |
| Ray Emery |
| FLYERS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 28-27-14 (70 pts; 5th in East WC) | Record | 37-18-11 (85 pts; 3rd in Atlantic) |
| 2.54 (22nd in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.88 (8th in NHL) |
| 2.75 (23rd) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.52 (12th) |
| 22.0% (4th) | Power Play % | 25.2% (1st, bitches) |
| 76.7% (28th) | Penalty Kill % | 81.7% (13th) |
| Wayne Simmonds (26 goals) | Goal Leader | Tomas Tatar (25 goals) |
| Jakub Voracek (67 points) | Points Leader | Pav & Hank tied at 56 points |
- The Red Wings are 49-59-21-0 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time in the regular season against the Philadelphia Flyers.
- Last 10 Games: Philadelphia 3-4-3, Detroit 5-4-1/
- Howard is 2-2-0 all-time against the Flyers with a 3.29 GAA and .898 SV%. Today will be his first career start in Philly. It's the only city he's yet to play in./