Morning Skate: Red Wings at Stars
8:30p ET, American Airlines Center
Dallas, TX
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Stars Blog: Defending Big D
After earning a point in Chicago on Tuesday, the Red Wings are back at it tonight in Dallas as they wrap up their 7 game road trip. It's been an okay trip for the Wings so far. They've gone 2-2-2, but just okay isn't going to cut it if this team really want to make a run.
The Red Wings have sole possession of last place in the Atlantic. They're 6 points behind the Senators for 3rd in the division and 8 points behind Philly for a wild card spot. That's not a huge mountain to climb, but sooner or later the Wings need to string together 3, 4, or 5 wins-in-a-row if they really want to get back in the race.
Good news is the Wings are getting healthier, which means the lineup is getting deeper as well. More good news is they're going up against a Stars team that's lost 4 of their last 5 games. They've been missing Jamie Been for the last few outings. He's reportedly skating at about 80% and unlikely to play tonight. I'll take any help the Wings can get. Two points are incredibly important tonight with games against the Penguins, Canadiens and Bruins on the horizon.
START HERE
Detroit Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Gus Nyquist | Henrik Zetterberg | Anthony Mantha |
| Andreas Athanaisou | Frans Nielsen | Thomas Vanek |
| Tomas Tatar | Dylan Larkin | Justin Abdelkader |
| Drew Miller | Riley Sheahan | Luke Glendening |
Defensemen
| Danny DeKeyser | Mike Green |
| Jonathan Ericsson | Alexey Marchenko |
| Xavier Ouellet | Ryan Sproul |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek |
| Jared Coreau |
Scratches: Steve Ott, Tomas Jurco
Injuries: Jimmy Howard, Darren Helm, Niklas Kronwall & Brendan Smith
END HERE
Dallas Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Jiri Hudler | Jason Spezza | Tyler Seguin |
| Antoine Roussel | Cody Eakin | Patrick Eaves |
| Devin Shore | Radek Faksa | Patrick Sharp |
| Lauri Korpikoski | Adam Cracknell | Brett Ritchie |
Defensemen
| Esa Lindell | John Klingberg |
| Dan Hamhuis | Jamie Oleksiak |
| Johnny Oduya | Jordie Benn |
Goaltenders
| Kari Lehtonen |
| Antti Niemi |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.