2 PM ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket/1270 AM
Islanders Blog: Lighthouse Hockey
The Red Wings are back at home after a Florida trip not unlike when I vacation with my children: a lot of tears, a lot of anger, and wondering why the decision was made to even attempt the excursion.
Fresh off an 8-day break, the Wings dropped back-to-back decisions to the Lightning and Panthers, a disappointing start to the post-All Star Game schedule. The Wings have been pretty average at home (which fits right in with their overall record this season), and start a 5-game homestand as the Islanders come to town for a Saturday afternoon affair.
The Wings are trying a few different things on their forward lines, calling up Andreas Athanasiou and looking to insert him in the lineup over Joakim Andersson. The Wings have struggled to generate any offense over the last month or so, and the thought is that the man they call Greece Lightning will jumpstart a moribund offense that ranks 22nd in the NHL in GF/G. AA could also play on the PK, which has given up goals in 2 straight games.
The Wings were victorious over the Islanders in their first meeting of the season, which happened to be the game right before the All-Star break and when life was still good as a Red Wing fan. The last week has been nothing but doom and gloom and despair and left us all wondering why we ever hitched our wagon to such a falling star.
Oh, except that Dylan Larkin is all that is awesome in the world, and you should just accept him as your future Calder Trophy winner.
Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Justin Abdelkader | Henrik Zetterberg | Pavel Datsyuk |
| Darren Helm | Dylan Larkin | Brad Richards |
| Gustav Nyquist | Andreas Athanasiou | Tomas Tatar |
| Tomas Jurco | Riley Sheahan | Luke Glendening |
Defensemen
| Kyle Quincey | Danny DeKeyser |
| Brendan Smith | Mike Green |
| Jonathan Ericsson | Alexey Marchenko |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek |
| Jimmy Howard |
Scratches: Teemu Pulkkinen, Joakim Andersson
Injuries: Drew Miller, Johan Franzen, Niklas Kronwall
Islanders Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Mikhail Grabovski | John Tavares | Ryan Strome |
| Nikolay Kulemin | Frans Nielsen | Kyle Okposo |
| Anders Lee | Brock Nelson | Josh Bailey |
| Matt Martin | Casey Cizikas | Cal Clutterbuck |
Defensemen
| Johnny Boychuk | Nick Leddy |
| Calvin De Haan | Travis Hamonic |
| Marek Zidlicky | Thomas Hickey |
Goaltenders
| Jaroslav Halak |
| Jean-Francois Berube |
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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.
