Morning Skate: Red Wings vs Canucks
10:00p ET, Rogers Arena
Vancouver, BC
TV: Fox Sports Detroit, CBC
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Canucks Blogs: Nucks Misconduct
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Let's kick this shit off right with a good-ass hockey game against a very familiar team. The Canucks remind me a lot of the Red Wings. Good team, questionable areas, two good goalies, and two pairs of magical Euros.
Remember 10pm starts? I do. What a stupid thing. Anyways, Detroit is kicking off a nice West Canada road-trip which they conveniently end in... Washington? Go home, NHL. You are drunk! This is a winnable game for Detroit, and like all other games, I expect them to get the W to start off the year in the right fashion. So fire up the coffee pot, put the kids to bed, kick up your feet, and let's fuckin' hockey.
The Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Henrik Zetterberg | Pavel Datsyuk | Justin Abdelkader |
| Tomas Tatar | Riley Sheahan | Tomas Jurco |
| Johan Franzen | Darren Helm | Gustav Nyquist |
| Drew Miller | Luke Glendening | Stephen Weiss |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Kyle Quincey | Danny DeKeyser |
| Xavier Ouellet | Brendan Smith |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Petr Mrazek |
Scratches: Brian Lashoff & Daniel Cleary
Injuries: Jakub Kindl (elbow) & Jonas Gustavsson (shoulder)
Forwards
| Daniel Sedin | Henrik Sedin | Radim Vrbata |
| Chris Higgins | Nick Bonino | Jannik Hansen |
| Shawn Matthias | Brad Richardson | Linden Vey |
| Derek Dorsett | Bo Horvat | Alexandre Burrows |
Defensemen
| Alexander Edler | Chris Tanev |
| Ryan Stanton | Kevin Bieksa |
| Luca Sbisa | Yannick Weber |
Goaltenders
| Ryan Miller (starting) |
| Eddie Lack |
| CANUCKS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 21-12-3 (45 pts; 3rd in Pacific) | Record | 20-9-9 (49 pts; 3rd in Atlantic) |
| 2.86 (9th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.82 (13th in NHL) |
| 2.67 (19th in NHL) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.32 (5th in NHL) |
| 20.0% (10th in NHL) | Power Play % | 23.8% (2nd in NHL) |
| 86.9% (4th in NHL) | Penalty Kill % | 88.0% (2nd in NHL) |
| Radim Vrbata (15 goals) | Goal Leader | Tomas Tatar & Gustav Nyquist (15) |
| Daniel Sedin (32 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (33 points) |
- The Red Wings are 91-62-18 (W-L-T/OTL) all-time in the regular season against the Vancouver Canucks.
- Last 10 Games: Detroit 3-3-4, Vancouver 3-5-2
- Jimmy Howard is 12-5-2 with a 2.47 GAA and .912 SV% in 19 career games against the Canucks./