12:30p ET, Madison Square Garden
New York City, NY
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Rangers Blog: Blueshirt Banter
Win in regulation or overtime and you’re in.
It’s that simple.
Of course, it was even more simple the other day, but the Red Wings decided to give up in Boston. Nothing from Thursday really matters anymore though. This is the last regular season game of the year… and it might very well be the last game of any kind this season. And if it is, it will be very, very, very disappointing on many levels.
So Raanta in goal vs. Red Wings; Zucc/Stalberg/McDonagh/Girardi all out; Lindberg back in; call up F from @WolfPackAHL (likely HrIvik)
— Jim Cerny (@JimCerny) April 8, 2016
The Rangers don’t appear to want to win this game. They’re sitting some good players and the Wings need to take advantage of that.
I don’t really blame New York either. If the Rangers win, they’ll likely be headed to Pittsburgh to open up the first round against the Penguins. You know… that Pens team that’s pretty much been the hottest team in the league the last month or so.
If the Rangers lose, they’re headed to Sunrise to take on the Panthers and potentially the rest of the Atlantic Division. If you ask me, I’d rather face the Panthers and then Lightning/Red Wings/Bruins instead of Penguins then Capitals. You’d be crazy to think otherwise.
The Red Wings scenarios are below.
| RED WINGS CLINCH SATURDAY IF: | |
| DET wins ROW vs NYR | |
| OR | DET wins SO AND BOS does not win ROW |
| OR | DET earns 1 pt. AND BOS loses |
| OR | OTT beats BOS in regulation |
| RED WINGS CLINCH SUNDAY IF: | |
| DET wins SO AND PHI does not win twice | |
| OR | DET earns 1 pt. AND PHI does not earn 3 pts. |
| OR | PHI does not earn 2 pts. vs PIT and NYI |
| RED WINGS ELIMINATED SATURDAY IF: | |
| DET earns 0 pts. AND BOS earns 1 pt. AND PHI wins vs PIT | |
| RED WINGS ELIMINATED SUNDAY IF: | |
| DET wins SO AND BOS wins ROW AND PHI earns 4 pts. | |
| OR | DET earns 1 pt. AND BOS wins AND PHI earns 3 pts. |
| OR | DET earns 0 pts. AND BOS earns 1 pt. AND PHI earns 2 pts. |
As far as the Wings lineup is concerned, Joakim Andersson was recalled yesterday as insurance if Justin Abdelkader cannot play. He left Thursday’s game with a lower body injury. Ken Holland says Abdelkader is expected to play.
Holland said Abdelkader (lower body) is expected to play tomorrow…Andersson gives Blashill options on that fourth line…
— Ted Kulfan (@tkulfan) April 8, 2016
If Abdelkader AND Andersson both end up in tomorrow’s game… I don’t really know what to say. Should Abdelkader play, then he sure as hell better be able to play even strength, power play and on the PK. I know Tomas Jurco hasn’t been spectacular, but I’d rather him or Anthony Mantha get 4 minutes of ice time in a big game than Andersson.
But hey… if the wrong decision is made, we’ll have a very long offseason to talk about it.
Detroit’s Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Justin Abdelkader | Henrik Zetterberg | Dylan Larkin |
| Darren Helm | Pavel Datsyuk | Brad Richards |
| Gus Nyquist | Riley Sheahan | Tomas Tatar |
| Andreas Athanasiou | Luke Glendening | Tomas Jurco |
Defensemen
| Danny DeKeyser | Kyle Quincey |
| Niklas Kronwall | Alexey Marchenko |
| Jonathan Ericsson | Mike Green |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Petr Mrazek |
Scratches: Teemu Pulkkinen, Anthony Mantha, Brendan Smith, Joakim Andersson
Injuries: Drew Miller, Johan Franzen
New York’s Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Chris Greider | Derek Stepan | Rick Nash |
| J.T. Miller | Derick Brassard | Lindberg/Hrivik |
| Eric Staal | Kevin Hayes | Jesper Fast |
| Tanner Glass | Dominic Moore | Lindberg/Hrivik |
Defensemen
| Keith Yandle | Kevin Klein |
| Marc Staal | Dylan McIlrath |
| Brady Skjei | Dan Boyle |
Goaltenders
| Annti Raanta (starting) |
| Henrik Lundqvist |
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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.
