The Wings took the ice for their morning skate and our spies were able to obtain information from an increasingly irritable and block-happy digging crew despite beat reporters’ desire to apparently prevent Wings fans from seeing what they’re reporting.
Many Bothans died to bring you news that Howard was occupying the starter’s net and that the lines were the same as how the team practiced on Thursday (including the Richards-for-Mantha line switch that so many of our readers glibly pointed out should mean good thing for Mantha’s ice time now that he’s on Luke “I play 20 minutes per night” Glendening’s wing).
Despite the crap given, I do want to point out that the diggers did ask Blashill to elaborate on his reasons why Brendan Smith remains scratched and that Blashill more than once declined to do so, giving only what appears to be a curt non-answer:
blashill: decision on Dmen in lineup not based on smith and marchenko alone. all seven evaluated.
— gregg krupa (@greggkrupa) April 1, 2016
Line Combinations
Forwards
| Justin Abdelkader | Henrik Zetterberg | Dylan Larkin |
| Darren Helm | Pavel Datsyuk | Brad Richards |
| Tomas Tatar | Riley Sheahan | Gustav Nyquist |
| Andreas Athanasiou | Luke Glendening | Anthony Mantha |
Defensemen
| Danny DeKeyser | Kyle Quincey |
| Niklas Kronwall | Alexey Marchenko |
| Jonathan Ericsson | Mike Green |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard(starting) |
| Petr Mrazek |
Power Play units:
- Nyquist-Zetterberg-Larkin, Abdelkader (net front), Kronwall
- Tatar-Datsyuk-Mantha (net front), Richards, Green
Wild Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Zach Parise | Mikko Koivu | Charlie Coyle |
| Jason Zucker | Mikael Granlund | Thomas Vanek |
| Nino Niederreiter | Erik Haula | Jason Pominville |
| Jordan Schroeder | Jarret Stoll | Justin Fontaine |
Defensemen
| Ryan Suter | Jared Spurgeon |
| Marco Scandella | Jonas Brodin |
| Mike Reilly | Mathew Dumba |
Goaltenders
| Devan Dubnyk |
| Darcy Kuemper |
Keys to the Game:
Stop sucking
No, seriously. Whether Blashill puts the right guys out there or not (hint: he won’t), the players have to make it work. We’re going to have all summer to discuss why things didn’t work and point various fingers (again and again), but tonight in the smallest sample possible, the players have to do whatever job they’re given, even if it’s not ideal.
Tend the damn goal
This isn’t specifically aimed at whomever is going to be starting, but it’s obvious that guy has to do his job damn well. Outside of that though, his team absolutely has to do better than the incompetent donkey-grope that has been net-front defense lately.
Keep scoring on the power play
Hey, if there’s one thing they’re doing well, it’s scoring on the PP. Keep that up.
Fun Facts!
- No more fun facts until morale improves. /
