8:00 PM ET, Xcel Energy Center
St. Paul, Minnesota
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Wild Blog: Hockey Wilderness
Well, the Red Wings are not in first place anymore. After the Panthers pounced all over the Blue Jackets last night, the Red Wings are now a point back from first, but have a game in hand.
Per the Minnesota beat writers, Zach Parise and Devan Dubnyk left practice yesterday with injuries. Their status today is unknown, but it seems like everyone is pretty confident that they’ll be in the lineup. More on that with our midday updates post. On the flip side, the Detroit beat writers have confirmed that Dylan Larkin will be out tonight, but the leading goal-scorer is not out due to concussion symptoms.
The Wings draw yet another team with a subpar penalty killing unit, so if there are penalties be had this evening, that’s where they should look to pull away with a win. The narrative stays very much the same – This division is stupid, and everything is close. There’s very little room for error, so keep up the strong performance, and stay with the pack.
Line Combinations
Red Wings‘ Lineup
Forwards
| Gustav Nyquist | Henrik Zetterberg | Justin Abdelkader |
| Darren Helm | Pavel Datsyuk | Brad Richards |
| Tomas Jurco | Riley Sheahan | Tomas Tatar |
| Joakim Andersson | Luke Glendening | Tomas Nosek |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Danny DeKeyser |
| Brendan Smith | Mike Green |
| Jakub Kindl | Alexey Marchenko |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek |
| Jimmy Howard |
Scratches: None. Everyone is hurt.
Injuries: Johan Franzen, Jonathan Ericsson, Dylan Larkin, Kyle Quincey, Drew Miller, Teemu Pulkkinen
Wild Lineup
Forwards
| Zach Parise | Mikael Granlund | Jason Pominville |
| Thomas Vanek | Mikko Koivu | Jason Zucker |
| Nino Niederreiter | Erik Haula | Charlie Coyle |
| Chris Porter | Jarret Stoll | Ryan Carter |
Defensemen
| Ryan Suter | Jared Spurgeon |
| Matthew Dumba | Marco Scandella |
| Nate Prosser | Jonas Brodin |
Goaltenders
| Devan Dubnyk |
| Darcy Kuemper |
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| WILD | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 18-10-6 (4th in Central, 42 pts) | Record | 18-10-7 (2nd in Atlantic, 43 pts) |
| 2.71 (9th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.60 (15th in NHL) |
| 2.44 (21st in NHL) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.54 (15th in NHL) |
| 19.6% (13th in NHL) | Power Play % | 18.6% (16th in NHL) |
| 77.1% (27th in NHL) | Penalty Kill % | 82.0% (11th in NHL) |
| Thomas Vanek (11 goals) | Goal Leader | Dylan Larkin (13 goals) |
| Mikko Koivu (29 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (27 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.
