Morning Skate: Red Wings vs Panthers
Game 30
7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: Fox Sports Detroit, NHL Network
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Panthers Blogs: Litter Box Cats
The Red Wings are riding high right now sitting 2nd in the East, just 1 point behind 1st place Tampa Bay. The danger of riding high, is that you have further to fall. This is the Wings 2nd meeting with the Panthers this season and they lost the 1st match-up 4-3 a mere 10 days ago. The Panthers aren't a President's Trophy winning team, but they're hanging right in there in the Eastern Conference Wild Card battle. This game has all the markings of being a trap game, and yet I'm curiously optimistic. The Wings have impressive depth, three scoring lines, a mostly competent defense (hey, I said mostly) and a heck of a good goalie tandem, and gosh darn it (some) people like us. The Panthers have been off since Monday when they lost 4-2 to the Marty Brodeur Blues- man that sounds strange to say.
There was a casualty besides our pride at the end of the Leafs game. Danny DeKeyser hurt his upper body and Xavier WOoooooouellet has been called up from Grand Rapids to take his place. I'm thrilled Ouellet is back up where he belongs, but I'm disappointed it's at DeKe's expense and not Kindl's.
Here... We... Go!
The Expected Lines (subject to change... Duh)
Forwards
| Gustav Nyquist | Henrik Zetterberg | Tomas Jurco |
| Tomas Tatar | Pavel Datsyuk | Darren Helm |
| Johan Franzen | Riley Sheahan | Stephen Weiss |
| Drew Miller | Luke Glendening | Joakim Andersson |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Kyle Quincey | Xavier Ouellet |
| Brendan Smith | Jakub Kindl |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Petr Mrazek |
Scratches: Brian Lashoff & Daniel Cleary
Injuries: Jonas Gustavsson (shoulder), Justin Abdelkader (shoulder), & Danny DeKeyser (Upper Body)
Forwards
| Jonathan Huberdeah | Nick Bjugstad | Tomas Fleischmann |
| Sean Bergenheim | Dave Bolland | Brad Boyes(Whatcha gonna do) |
| I'm Jussi Jokinen with ya | Vincent Trocheck | Jimmy Hayes |
| Tomas Coke & Pepsi | Derek MacKenzie | Brandon Pirri |
Defensemen
| Brian Campbell | Aaron Ekblad |
| Willie or won't he Mitchell | Dmitry Kulikov |
| Dylan Olsen | Erik Gudbranson |
Goaltenders
| Roberto Bosco Home Services Luongo (starting) |
| You can call me Al Montoya |
| PANTHERS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 11-8-7 (29 pts; 3rd in WC race) | Record | 17-6-6 (40 pts; 2nd in East) |
| 2.19 (27th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 3.03 (4th in NHL) |
| 2.46 (9th) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.34 (7th) |
| 14.8% (24th) | Power Play % | 21.0% (10h) |
| 81.7% (15th) | Penalty Kill % | 87.6% (3rd) |
| Nick Bugstad (12 goals) | Goal Leader | Gustav Nyquist (13) |
| Nick Bugstad (18 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (25 points) |
- The Red Wings are 16-4-5-4 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time in the regular season against the Florida Panthers.
- Last 10 Games: Detroit 7-2-1, Florida 5-3-2
- Howard is 2-1-1 with a 1.95 GAA and .927 SV% in 4 career games against the Panthers./