8:00 PM ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, Michigan
TV: NBCS, TVA
Radio: 971 The Ticket
Capitals Blog: Japers’ Rink
We’re back!
After a thrilling overtime win against the Ottawa Senators, the Detroit Red Wings look to make it two-straight wins against the Washington Capitals tonight at the Joe. Coming off of a 1-0 win against the Capitals in their last meeting, I think we can all agree that if Alexander Ovechkin scores a goal (or multiple) tonight, we can all be happy that it’s not in front of Hall of Fame legend Sergei Fedorov. Haha, dude. The last time I did 15 shots, I uh, well.. I’ve never done that. That’s a really bad idea. What were you even thinking? You were so messed up.
The lineups posted below are tentative, seeing that the Red Wings haven’t practiced since their game in Ottawa, but it gives us a good understanding at what we could very well be seeing this evening in our RIVALRY NIGHT MATCH-UP! Rivalry? We’re still doing this, huh? This never was a rivalry. The Wings pasted the Caps back in ’98, when they swept them harder than a kitchen staff sweeps a floor at the end of a Saturday night dinner rush. Oh well, NBC. You do you, and we’ll do us.
Nevertheless, the Red Wings have been doing a great job of trending in the right way over the last handful of games, and will hopefully continue this tonight. Last night they faced the Caps, it wasn’t exactly a dominant game, but Petr Mrazek came out on top, with Andreas Athanasiou scoring his first-career NHL goal, which happened to be the game-winner. Let’s just hope that it’s not that close tonight, and when I say that, I mean in the favor of the good guys. Because we want to win. Winning is really great. Prepare yourself for the “subtle interference references!”
Line Combinations
Red Wings Lineup
Forwards
| Justin Abdelkader | Henrik Zetterberg | Gustav Nyquist |
| Tomas Tatar | Pavel Datsyuk | Dylan Larkin |
| Drew Miller | Andreas Athanasiou | Teemu Pulkkinen |
| Darren Helm | Luke Glendening | Riley Sheahan |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Mike Green |
| Danny DeKeyser | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Brendan Smith/Jakub Kindl | Alexey Marchenko |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek |
| Jimmy Howard |
Scratches: Joakim Andersson, Tomas Jurco (conditioning in Grand Rapids)
Injuries: Brad Richards, Johan Franzen, Kyle Quincey, Landon Ferraro
Capitals Lineup
Forwards
| Alexander Ovechkin | Nicklas Backstrom | TJ Oshie |
| Marcus Johansson | Evgeny Kuznetsov | Andre Burakovsky |
| Jason Chimera | Jay Beagle | Justin Williams |
| Brooks Laich | Michael Latta | Tom Wilson |
Defensemen
| Nate Schmidt | John Carlson |
| Karl Alzner | Matt Niskanen |
| Dmtri Orlov | Taylor Chorney |
Goaltenders
| Braden Holtby |
| Philipp Grubauer |
| CAPITALS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 11-4-1 (2nd in Metropolitan) | Record | 9-8-1 (3rd in Atlantic) |
| 3.06 (5th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.28 (25th in NHL) |
| 2.31 (7th in NHL) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.50 (13th in NHL) |
| 22.4 (6th in NHL) | Power Play % | 17.2 (21st in NHL) |
| 84.8 (7th in NHL) | Penalty Kill % | 82.8 (10th in NHL) |
| Alexander Ovechkin (8 goals) | Goal Leader | Gustav Nyquist (7 goals) |
| Evgeny Kuznetsov (17 of points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (17 points) |
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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.
