Morning Skate: Red Wings vs Panthers
7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, Michigan
TV: FDT+
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Panthers Blogs: Litter Box Cats
Meow.
The Good Guys are coming off of a piping hot win-streak right now. Four in a row, all of which they have score four or more goals in. Detroit has been lifted by their power-play as of late, which is now ranked 6th in the league.
I wouldn't take these Panthers for granted, though. They have a surge of talented young players like rookie Aaron Ekblad, who is making a strong case to be in the Calder race. Now that they have a real goalie, and not Tim Thomas, yeah I would say they are a different team this year. If the Wings can keep focused on their ways of scoring a lot, then they will have no issues. Jimmy Howard has been performing quite well, even having let in a few softies.
Let's keep to our scoring ways. Detroit has scored four or more goals in seven of the last nine games, and if they can keep that up, it will be hard to stop them.
The Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Henrik Zetterberg | Pavel Datsyuk | Johan Franzen |
| Gustav Nyquist | Riley Sheahan | Tomas Tatar |
| Tomas Jurco | Darren Helm | Stephen Weiss |
| Drew Miller | Luke Glendening | Joakim Andersson |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Kyle Quincey | Danny DeKeyser |
| Jakub Kindl | Brendan Smith |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Petr Mrazek |
Scratches: Daniel Cleary, & Brian Lashoff
Injuries: Justin Abdelkader (shoulder)
Forwards
| Jonathan Huberdeau | Nick Bjugstad | Jussi Jokinen (questionable) |
| Sean Bergenheim | Aleksander Barkov (questionable) | Brad Boyes |
| Tomas Fleischmann | Vincent Trocheck | Jimmy Hayes |
| Tomas Kopecky | Derek MacKenzie | Brandon Pirri |
Defensemen
| Brian Campbell | Aaron Ekblad |
| Willie Mitchell | Dmitry Kulikov |
| Dylan Olsen | Erik Gudbranson |
Goaltenders
| Roberto Luongo (Starting) |
| Al Montoya |
Opponent Outlook
Player to Fear: Aaron Ekblad. The most-current 1st overall pick has been putting the backend of this team on his back, and is doing a damn good job of it.
X-Factor: Roberto Luongo. Still a good goalie, and has the ability to steal a game.
Familiar Faces: Tomas Kopecky! hehe
Stuff to think about:
- The Red Wings are 16-7-5 all-time against Florida in the regular season
- Tomas Jurco has scored 7 points in his last 7 games.
- Jimmy Howard is 4-1-0 in his last 5 games.