Morning Skate: Red Wings at Islanders

7:00p ET, Barclays Center

Brooklyn, NY

TV: SNO, SNP, FS-D, MSG+

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

Islanders Blog: Lighthouse Hockey

The Red Wings make a trip to the Barclays Center to take on the New York Islanders for the first of three meetings, all of which will come in the next three weeks. The Islanders fell victim to #BlizzardJonas this weekend when their Saturday game against the Philadelphia Flyers was postponed due to the weather. They held an optional skate Sunday, so their lines are based on their last game against the Ottawa Senators on Friday night.

Detroit has two players that are supposedly questionable for tonight’s game, roles that would be filled by one of forward Eric Tangradi or defenseman Nick Jensen, who were called up by the Red Wings on Sunday, while Joakim Andersson was sent down. We don’t know for sure who is potentially hurt (though it’s suspected Brendan Smith might be hurting after his last couple of rough games) and the team didn’t practice yesterday, so we’re going with the lines projected from the Anaheim game.

Personally, I’d like to see the Tatar-Sheahan-Jurco line stay together, since not only have they shown the same kind of chemistry from the 2013-2014 season, but Tomas Jurco has been playing very well the last two games, albeit in still-limited minutes. Whether or not Jeff Blashill will reunite the trio remains to be seen, whether it be before the game starts or halfway through the second period.

This is also the Wings’ last game of January, since the league will be heading into the All-Star Break for the weekend. While you’ll be able to watch Dylan Larkin at the ASG in Nashville, the rest of the team will be sipping mimosas on beaches until they’re back in action against the Atlantic Division rival Lightning on February 3. A win before such a long break will be much nicer to ruminate on when there’s no real hockey being played.

Red Wings Expected Lineups

Forwards

Defensemen

Goaltenders

Scratches: Eric Tangradi, Nick Jensen

Injuries: Drew Miller (torn meniscus/ACL surgery), Johan Franzen (concussion), Niklas Kronwall (knee surgery)

Islanders Expected Lineups

Forwards

Defensemen

Goaltenders

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.