Wings kick off Central Showdown tonight
The Red Wings will have a chance to put some space between themselves and the rest of the division over the next two and a half weeks. The team currently has a 5-point lead over the Blue Jackets; the rest of the division is bunched together with 14 points thus far. Over the next 19 days the Wings play the BJs three times, and the Preds, Hawks and Blues twice.
Bruce MacLeod was at practice yesterday and he reports on the likely lineups for tonight’s game:
Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom/Hudler
Franzen-Filppula-Samuelsson/Hudler
Cleary-Draper-Maltby
Drake-Ellis-Downey/Kopecky
Lidstrom-Rafalski
Lebda-Lilja
Meech-Chelios
Kronwall
Osgood
Hasek
MacLeod reports that Johan Franzen worked on the second power play unit to there’s a chance he gets a look there. Bruce also speculates that Hudler could get scratched. If that’s the case it’s likely because the opponent dictates playing an enforcer like Downey over Hudler on the fourth line. So that will be something to keep an eye on during the game. I wrote about the decision of dealing with players like Jordin Tootoo in this post.
There’s no other player in the division [with the possible exception of Jared Boll] who’s as likely to take a cheap shot at one of Detroit’s top forwards, and losing a member of the ZDH line - which happened for the final 19 regular season games last year due to a cheap shot - could have a significant impact on the team. That’s where Aaron Downey comes in. By holding his own as he beat the 6′4″ Kyle McLaren down to the ice, he’d provide the deterrent necessary to keep the 5′9″ Tootoo in check.
This was the theoretical reason for having Darryl Bootland on the team last season but Booter was abused by Tootoo. Downey’s a seasoned vet and a legit middleweight so I expect him to be in the lineup tonight. If that’s the case it will be interesting to see which other players between Dallas Drake, Matt Ellis and Tomas Kopecky play. I suspect Ellis might be the odd-man out in this scenario. Here’s my guess on the lineup:
Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom
Franzen-Filppula-Samuelsson
Cleary-Draper-Maltby
Drake-Kopecky-Downey
Lidstrom-Rafalski
Lilja-Lebda
Chelios-Meech
Osgood
Ozzie is getting the start tonight with Dominik Hasek expected to start Friday against Columbus. The Wings dominated third period play last season and Helene St. James throws out a stat that indicates that strong play has continued this season: the team has only allowed 9 third period goals all season, which ranks 3rd in the league for lowest total allowed.
David Goricki from the Detroit News wrote an article that has a lot of good quotes from Chris Osgood, Kirk Maltby and Brett Lebda. Here’s a good one that echoes what was said last season about the team trying to find the best balance of being a puck possession team that can also be gritty:
“We’re a puck possession team and we’re going to have a lot of shots because we have the puck a lot,” Lebda said. “We take pride in throwing it on net, being gritty and frustrating the other team’s goalie. If he makes the save, we’re going to get possession again and shoot it again and again.”
Gameday Posts
Matt over at On the Wings has his Gamedy Post up. He has a really solid review of Nashville’s season to date. Let’s Go Wings is the only website I’ve come across that already has their Gameday Thread up and running.
Also, Red Wings Central has their latest Prospect Rankings up. No change at the top of the list but some recent draft picks have quickly worked their way up the rankings. One guy in particular who is rocketing up the charts is Brendan Smith. I can’t wait to see him play when the Wolverines take on the Badgers later on this month. “Hat Trick” Dick Axelsson is also progressing up the rankings in leaps and bounds.
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