Morning Skate: Red Wings at Senators
Game 36
7:00p ET, Canadian Tire Centre
Ottawa, ON
TV: Fox Sports Detroit, CBC, TVA
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Senators Blogs: Silver Seven
The Wings are back in action after a 3 day Christmas break and they're on the road for the first time in 2 weeks. The Wings have played the Senators twice already this season with each team winning one game. The Senators have become such a jerkwad team that my first thought when I hear them mentioned is dirty scum suckers who try to or successfully injure other players. As a result of that association, I take a little extra pleasure in beating them. Ottawa no longer has Paul "The Mustache" MacLean behind the bench so any reason to feel anything good about their team is gone. I hope the Wings kick their butts up and down the ice, then down the hallway, into the dressing room, and all the way home.
The Senators have lost their last 2 games, while the Wings finally got off their 6 game not winning streak. After only scoring 6 goals in 6 games, the Wings exploded against the Sabres last Tuesday with 6 goals and hey, scoring goals is good. Stephen Weiss made his comeback against the Sens in the first meeting this season and scored 2 goals. Despite not remembering Zadorov hiting him and sending him to the quiet room on Tuesday, Weiss says he ok and good to play, it will just be up to Babcock if he puts him in or not. Niklas Kronwall also says he A-ok to play after missing almost the last 2 periods after becoming a manwich. I don't know yet if Brian Lashoff will play because someone finally stuffed Jakub Kindl into a box and sent him to Siberia, but I hope that's what happened.
UPDATE: Lines per morning skate
The Expected Lines (subject to change... Duh)
Forwards
| Henrik Zetterberg | Pavel Datsyuk | Justin Abdelkader |
| Tomas Tatar | Riley Sheahan | Stephen Weiss |
| Johan Franzen | Darren Helm | Gustav Nyquist |
| Drew Miller | Luke Glendening | Tomas Jurco |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Kyle Quincey | Danny DeKeyser |
| Brendan Smith | Brian Lashoff |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Petr Mrazek |
Scratches: Jakub Kindl, & Daniel Cleary, Joakim Andersson
Injuries: Jonas Gustavsson (shoulder)
Forwards
| Clarke MacArthur | Kyle Turris | Mark Stone |
| Mike Hoffman | Mika Jibanejad | Bobby Ryan |
| Milan MIchalek | Jean-Gabriel Pageau | Alex Chiasson |
| Colin Greening | David Legwand | Eric Condra |
Defensemen
| Mark Borowiecki | Erik Karlsson |
| Jared Cowen | Cody Ceci |
| Patrick Wiercioch | Eric Gryba |
Goaltenders
| Craig Anderson (starting) |
| Robin Lehner |
| SENATORS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 14-14-6 (34 pts; 6th in WC Race) | Record | 18-8-8 (45 pts; 3rd in Atlantic) |
| 2.56 (20th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.83 (12th in NHL) |
| 2.68 (17th) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.29 (5th) |
| 19.2% (15th) | Power Play % | 24.1% (4h) |
| 82.6% (12th) | Penalty Kill % | 87.9% (2nd) |
| Mike Hoffman (10 goals) | Goal Leader | Gustav Nyquist (14) |
| Kyle Turris (23 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (30 points) |
- The Red Wings are 19-11-1-0 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time in the regular season against the Ottawa Senators.
- Last 10 Games: Detroit 4-2-4, Senators 4-5-1
- Mrazek has never played against the Senators but is 4-2-1 with a 2.35 GAA and .917 SV% in 7 games so far this season and is 7-7-1 with a 2.03 GAA and .922 SV% in 18 career games (starting 13 of them) /