Morning Skate: Senators at Red Wings
Game 21
7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Sens Blogs: Silver Seven
It's the battle of the former Daniel Alfredsson teams. His old team versus his older team. Why does this matter? Well the soon-to-be 42-year-old is reportedly done for good and could officially announce his retirement as soon as today. It's kind of cool if he can do it at the rink with both of the franchises he's played for.
As far as tonight's game goes, hopefully the Red Wings will get Pavel Datsyuk back from his groin injury. That would severely shake up the lines and it would provide a nice boost after Saturday's dreadful performance against Toronto. The other wild card for the lineup tonight is Stephen Weiss. He's back with the team after his conditioning stint in Grand Rapids. Weiss scored 2 goals in 2 games with the Griffins. The most production we've seen from him since he's joined the organization. I'd like to see him get a chance on the 4th line. He's doing well against AHL competition? Then he should be able to do okay against NHL level 4th line competition.
UPDATE: According to the diggers, Datsyuk/Lashoff/Cleary are out tonight. Weiss/Kindl in.
The Expected Lineups (subject to change… duh)
Forwards
| Johan Franzen | Henrik Zetterberg | Gustav Nyquist |
| Tomas Tatar | Riley Sheahan | Justin Abdelkader |
| Tomas Jurco | Darren Helm | Stephen Weiss |
| Joakim Andersson | Luke Glendening | Drew Miller |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Kyle Quincey | Danny DeKeyser |
| Xavier Ouellet | Jakub Kindl |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Petr Mrazek |
Scratches: Brian Lashoff & Daniel Cleary
Injuries: Pavel Datsyuk (groin), Brendan Smith (infection) & Jonas Gustavsson (shoulder)
Forwards
| Clarke MacArthur | Kyle Turris | Alex Chiasson |
| Colin Greening | David Legwand | Bobby Ryan |
| Milan Michalek | Zack Smith | Chris Neil |
| Mike Hoffman | Mika Zibanejad | Mark Stone |
Defensemen
| Marc Methot | Erik Karlsson |
| Jared Cowen | Cody Ceci |
| Patrick Wiercioch | Eric Gryba |
Goaltenders
| Craig Andersson (starting) |
| Robin Lehner |
| SENATORS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 9-6-4 (22 pts; 3rd in East WC) | Record | 10-5-5 (25 pts; 1st in East WC) |
| 2.68 (15th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.75 (13th in NHL) |
| 2.53 (13th) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.30 (8th) |
| 20.6% (9th) | Power Play % | 18.8% (19th) |
| 83.6% (11th) | Penalty Kill % | 90.1% (1st) |
| Clarke MacArthur (8 goals) | Goal Leader | 2 tied with 9 goals |
| 2 tied with 14 points | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (17 points) |
- The Red Wings are 18-11-1-0 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time in the regular season against the new Ottawa Senators franchise.
- Last 10 Games: Detroit 4-3-3, Ottawa 4-4-2
- Howard is 3-3-0 with a 3.44 GAA and .890 SV% in 6 career games against the Sens./