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Morning Skate: Sabres vs Red Wings

7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena

Detroit, Michigan

TV: Fox Sports Detroit

Radio: 97.1 The Ticket

Sabres Blogs: Die By The Blade

Six goals and a record of 0-2-4 over the last six games. 100% unacceptable by even the worst of NHL team standards. Call it what you want, but the team isn’t getting lucky, and they are not playing up to par to what their able to do. But let’s keep positive. The team’s shooting percentage over the last heap of games has been atrocious, and it’s only bound to get better from here. It’s a slump. They’ll get out of it, but I am still terrified of them playing down to Buffalo tonight.

Detroit needs to find scoring from players outside of the big names. Tomas Jurco, Johan Franzen, Gustav Nyquist, and Darren Helm, hell even Tomas Tatar all need to get back on the train and start doing the score stuff. The Sabres are a team who, while aren’t good, have been playing drastically approved hockey as of late. So if Detroit comes out and plays down to them in the first 20 or 40 minutes, it might bite them hard. I believe that Babcock will make the necessary changes to get this train back on the tracks, but it’s not going to come easy. Tonight is a great chance for the team to bounce back. It is a winnable game, like many of the last six… But they simply have to finish.

The Expected Lineups

Forwards

Henrik Zetterberg Pavel Datsyuk Justin Abdelkader
Tomas Tatar Riley Sheahan Tomas Jurco
Gustav Nyquist Darren Helm Johan Franzen
Drew Miller Luke Glendening Stephen Weiss

Defensemen

Niklas Kronwall Jonathan Ericsson
Kyle Quincey Danny DeKeyser
Brendan Smith Jakub Kindl

Goaltenders

Petr Mrazek (starting)
Jimmy Howard


Scratches: Brian Lashoff, Joakim Andersson, Daniel Cleary

Injuries: Jimmy Howard, Jonas Gustavsson

Forwards

Drew Stafford Zemgus Girgensons Tyler Ennis
Brian Flynn Marcus Foligno Brian Gionta
Cody Hodgson Mikhail Grigorenko Chris Stewart
Johan Larsson Tim Schaller Nicolas Deslauriers

Defensemen

Josh Gorges Rasmus Ristolainen
Nikita Zadorov Mark Pysyk
Andre Benoit Andrej Meszaros

Goaltenders

Jhonas Enroth (starting)
Michal Neuvirth

Opponent Outlook

Player to Fear: Tyler Ennis. Very good player, has scored some ridiculous goals this season.

X-Factor: Jhonas Enroth. He’s been hot over his last 10 starts with a record of 7-2-1

Familiar Faces: No one. Everyone is stupid.

Stuff to think about:

  • The Red Wings have scored six goals in the last six games. That has to get better… Right…?
  • Buffalo isn’t a great team, but they have been playing fantastic hockey as of late. I am terrified of Detroit playing down to them.
  • There is a good chance Jimmy Howard and Stephen Weiss could play tonight.. Will have updates after the actual morning skate.

LGRW

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