Morning Skate: Red Wings at Sabres
Game 43
7p ET, First Niagara Center
Buffalo, NY
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Sabres Blog: Die By The Blade
The greatest goaltender of all-time, Dominik Hasek, gets his number retired tonight in Buffalo. It will easily be the greatest of all the recent number retirement ceremonies. The man has a slinky for a spine. He carried the Sabres to a Stanley Cup Final and should have won a Cup for the city of Buffalo (Hull was in the crease). Hasek was just straight up filthy.
From a Red Wings perspective, Hasek had two runs with the Red Wings and won two Stanley Cups in Detroit. He was part of the greatest hockey team ever assembled back in 2001-02. I'll never forget his shutout in Game 6 against the Avalanche in the 2002 Western Conference Final. Down 3-2 in the series and going to Denver, Hasek made 24 saves and the Wings won 2-0. Of course, he had back-to-back shutouts in the series too. The Wings won Game 7 by a score of 7-0 (!) and, of course, that game was much less stressful. Oh… and he almost killed Marian Gaborik.
As far as the actual game goes tonight… hopefully the Wings aren't distracted by the pregame ceremony. Buffalo is a bad hockey team. Let's just give them Connor McDavid already and call it a day. Tonight is a night where two points is a must and anything else is a massive disappointment. The status of Jimmy Howard is still uncertain, so wasting points tonight cannot happen.
The Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Gustav Nyquist | Henrik Zetterberg | Justin Abdelkader |
| Darren Helm | Pavel Datsyuk | Tomas Tatar |
| Drew Miller | Riley Sheahan | Teemu Pulkkinen |
| Joakim Andersson | Luke Glendening | Stephen Weiss |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Danny DeKeyser | Kyle Quincey |
| Xavier Ouellet | Brendan Smith |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek (starting) |
| Thomas McCollum |
Scratches: Brian Lashoff & Daniel Cleary
Injuries: Tomas Jurco (back), Jakub Kindl (not his wrist), Jimmy Howard (destroyed groin and pelvic region) & Jonas Gustavsson (shoulder)
Forwards
| Matt Moulson | Zemgus Girgensons | Tyler Ennis |
| Torrey Mitchell | Brian Flynn | Drew Stafford |
| Nicolas Deslauriers | Cody Hodgson | Phil Varone |
| Luke Adam | Zac Dalpe | Patrick Kaleta |
Defensemen
| Josh Gorges | Tyler Myers |
| Nikita Zadorov | Tyson Strachan |
| Andre Benoit | Rasmus Ristolainen |
Goaltenders
| Jhonas Enroth (starting) |
| Michal Neuvirth |
| SABRES | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 14-26-3 (31 pts; Last in East) | Record | 22-11-9 (53 pts; 3rd in Atlantic) |
| 1.74 (Last in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.76 (14th in NHL) |
| 3.40 (Last) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.36 (6th) |
| 9.2% (Last) | Power Play % | 24.2% (3rd) |
| 75.5% (28th) | Penalty Kill % | 86.3% (5th) |
| Zemgus Girgensons (11 goals) | Goal Leader | Tomas Tatar (16 goals) |
| Tyler Ennis (24 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (36 points) |
- The Red Wings are 55-52-13-2 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time in the regular season against the Buffalo Sabres.
- Last 10 Games: Buffalo 1-8-1, Detroit 5-4-1
- In his career, Dominik Hasek was 5-1-2 with a 1.84 GAA, .932 SV% and one shutout against the Sabres. He was 2-8-0 with 3.27 GAA and .907 SV% against Detroit./