7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena

Detroit, MI

TV: Fox Sports Detroit, NBCSN

Radio: 97.1 The Ticket/1270 AM

Sabres Blog: Die By The Blade

If the Red Wings lose this game, you can pretty much say goodnight to any playoff hopes. It's not officially over by any means, but the odds won't be in the team's favor.

The Sabres aren't a very good team... but let's be honest, neither are the Wings. I can't say I'm really confident in pulling this one out. I honestly just don't know what to expect tonight.

We all hope that the 7-2 can of whoop ass that was opened up on the team Saturday woke them up. We all hope they come out firing on all cylinders with a full-60 minute dominant effort where the victory is never in doubt. We hope it's the start of a run to a 25th consecutive postseason berth.

Sadly, hope is not a strategy.

It's going to take Petr Mrazek finding his game again. It's going to take guys like Gus Nyquist and Tomas Tatar scoring goals. It's going to take the defense playing defense. Whether all those things will happen, I don't know. I'll be watching though. And if the the ship is going down, I'll be going down with it.

Here's how things stand:

Islanders - 89 points (74 GP)

Bruins - 88 points (76 GP)

Flyers - 85 points (74 GP, vs WPG)

Red Wings - 85 points (75 GP, vs BUF)

Detroit Expected Lineup

Forwards

Defensemen

Goaltenders

Scratches: Teemu Pulkkinen, Tomas Jurco, Alexey Marchenko

Injuries: Drew Miller, Johan Franzen

Sabres Expected Lineup

Forwards

Defensemen

Goaltenders

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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.