7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: Fox Sports Detroit+, NHLN (US)
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket/1270 AM
Wild Blog: Hockey Wilderness
The Wild played last night at home in a game that ended at about 10:30 ET before heading to Detroit to face the Wings, who have been off since blowing a winnable game on Tuesday to stay outside the playoff picture. Ottawa’s game-winner was a third-period fluke, but those count all the same. Take your picks on narratives here. The Wild are tired/angry/uncertain/warmed-up while the Wings are cold/rested/angry/uncertain.
Doom-and-gloom all over the room for the Wings abounds, as fans have seen them lose too many of the kind of games you have to win, but they’re not eliminated until the math says so and right now the math says Detroit honestly has a good chance to make the postseason.
Minnesota is also fighting for their own playoff fate. They’re currently five points up on Colorado for eighth in the West with the Avs holding a game in hand. The only bright spot if the Wings lose is that this loss might end the Avs’ chances of making the postseason.
I can’t sugarcoat for you, the team looks very troubled right now. They have time to make it work, but hoo boy are they running out of that. So far we don’t know the starter and I’m guessing on the Mantha-for-Richards switch that was hinted at during yesterday’s practice. Blashill told the people present that Richards’ “resume” would factor into the decision (and then he declined to specify why Smith isn’t playing).
Detroit Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Justin Abdelkader | Henrik Zetterberg | Dylan Larkin |
| Darren Helm | Pavel Datsyuk | Brad Richards |
| Gus Nyquist | Riley Sheahan | Tomas Tatar |
| Andreas Athanasiou | Luke Glendening | Anthony Mantha |
Defensemen
| Danny DeKeyser | Kyle Quincey |
| Niklas Kronwall | Alexey Marchenko |
| Jonathan Ericsson | Mike Green |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek |
| Jimmy Howard |
Scratches: Teemu Pulkkinen, Tomas Jurco, Brendan Smith
Injuries: Drew Miller, Johan Franzen
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 |
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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.
