Morning Skate: Red Wings at Maple Leafs
Game 31
7:00p ET, Air Canada Centre
Toronto, ON
TV: Fox Sports Detroit, CBC, NHLN
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Leafs Blog: Pension Plan Puppets
The last time I wrote a Morning Skate was the last time the Red Wings won a game. It was also the second game of a back-to-back. History repeats itself, right?
Little injury update for Stephen Weiss: He suffered a should injury last night. Weiss made the trip to Toronto, but is questionable according to Ken Holland. I wouldn't hold your breath on him playing. Hopefully, it's not a serious long term injury.
The rest of the Red Wings need to win tonight. It's been almost a week since they've won. Two consecutive shootout losses isn't going to cut it. The Leafs are well rested. They haven't played since beating the Wings on Wednesday. So Toronto will be fresh and the Wings will have tired legs come the 3rd period. The built in excuse is there. Let's hope they don't have to use it… because that's lame. It's the final matchup against the Leafs this season. Each team has won twice. Just win the damn game.
The Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Tomas Jurco | Henrik Zetterberg | Gustav Nyquist |
| Tomas Tatar | Pavel Datsyuk | Darren Helm |
| Johan Franzen | Riley Sheahan | Daniel Cleary |
| Joakim Andersson | Luke Glendening | Drew Miller |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Kyle Quincey | Brendan Smith |
| Xavier Ouellet | Jakub Kindl |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek (starting) |
| Jimmy Howard |
Scratches: Brian Lashoff
Injuries: Danny DeKeyser (upper body), Stephen Weiss (shoulder), Justin Abdelkader (shoulder) & Jonas Gustavsson (shoulder)
Forwards
| James van Riemsdyk | Tyler Bozak | Phil Kessel |
| Daniel Winnik | Nazem Kadri | Mike Santorelli |
| Joffrey Lupul | Peter Holland | David Clarkson |
| David Booth | Trevor Smith | Richard Panik |
Defensemen
| Dion Phaneuf | Cody Franson |
| Jake Gardiner | Korbinian Holzer |
| Morgan Reilly | Stephane Robidas |
Goaltenders
| James Reimer (starting) |
| Jonathan Bernier |
| MAPLE LEAFS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 16-9-3 (35 pts; 1st in East WC) | Record | 17-6-7 (41 pts; 2nd in Atlantic) |
| 3.36 (2nd in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 3.00 (6th in NHL) |
| 2.86 (22nd) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.33 (7th) |
| 20.4% (12th) | Power Play % | 22.0% (8th) |
| 84.0% (9th) | Penalty Kill % | 88.2% (2nd) |
| Phil Kessel (15 goals) | Goal Leader | Gustav Nyquist (14 goals) |
| Phil Kessel (29 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (26 points) |
- The Red Wings are 280-274-93-5 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time in the regular season against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
- Last 10 Games: Toronto 7-2-1, Detroit 7-1-2
- The Red Wings are 2-0-1 on the second night of a back-to-backs
- Mrazek has never faced the Leafs, but in his career on the road he has a 6-3-0 record with a 1.81 GAA, .930 SV% and 2 shutouts./