5:30p ET, Canadian Tire Centre
Ottawa, ON
TV: Fox Sports Detroit Plus, NHL Network (US), TSN & RDS
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Sens Blog: Silver Seven
Third time is a charm, right?
Wrong.
The Red Wings will likely complete their trilogy of losses against the Senators this evening. It’s great that we’re all feeling warm and fuzzy and full after the Thanksgiving sandwich of domination against the Bruins and Islanders, but guess what? This team is still missing two-thirds of its old top line. Eventually that catches up to you. Eventually not having Pavel Datsyuk catches up to you and I expect that to come to fruition tonight.
I don’t care what the numbers say or how these teams look on paper based on their last few games. None of that matter this evening. All that matters is Daniel Alfredsson is returning home and there will be emotions and feelings and stuff happening.
Those things are going to have some sort of outcome on this game one way or another and I’m not expecting it to turn out in the Wings’ favor.
The Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Johan Franzen | Henrik Zetterberg | Gustav Nyquist |
| Justin Abdelkader | Darren Helm | Daniel Alfredsson |
| Drew Miller | Joakim Andersson | Tomas Tatar |
| Daniel Cleary | Stephen Weiss | Mikael Samuelsson |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Kyle Quincey | Brendan Smith |
| Brian Lashoff | Jakub Kindl |
Goaltenders
| Jonas Gustavsson (starting) |
| Jimmy Howard |
Scratches: None
Injuries: Pavel Datsyuk (concussion?), Todd Bertuzzi (upper body)
LTIR: Danny DeKeyser (shoulder)
| SENATORS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 10-12-4(24 pts; 6th in Atlantic) | Record | 13-7-7 (33 pts; 4th in Atlantic) |
| 2.92 (8th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.74 (12th in NHL) |
| 3.19 (26th) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.48 (12th) |
| 20.2% (10th) | Power Play % | 21.6% (7th) |
| 79.0% (22nd) | Penalty Kill % | 86.4% (3rd) |
| Bobby Ryan (13 goals) | Goal Leader | Pavel Datsyuk (12 goals) |
| Erik Karlsson (26 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (30 points) |
Opponent Outlook
Player to Fear: Jason Spezza. He does positive things.
X-Factor: Bobby Ryan. He does positive things against the Red Wings.
Familiar Faces: Their coach Paul MacLean won a ring with the Wings in 2008 as an assistant coach. And, there’s Alfredsson too.
Thumbs up (One Thing to Like About Ottawa): Their owner is cheap and we got Alfredsson because of it.
Thumbs down (One Thing to Dislike About Ottawa): Jared Cowen‘s elbow.
Bullets of Knowledge
- The Red Wings are 16-10-1-0 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time against the Senators.
- Last 10 games: Ottawa 4-6-0. Detroit 4-2-4./
- The Wings are currently 1-0-0 on Sundays. /
- Gustavsson is 2-3-0 with a 2.24 GAA and .919 SV% 6 career games against the Sens./
Prediction: Tears.
