With just a three-point gap in the Western Conference race between the conference leading Vancouver Canucks and their Central Division foes in the St. Louis Blues and Detroit Red Wings, every point counts during the final quarter of the NHL's regular season. Tonight, the Red Wings will attempt to take advantage of their game in hand on both clubs when they host the injury-ravaged Minnesota Wild at the Joe Louis Arena (Fox Sports Detroit, 7:30 pm EST)
The two teams have not played each other since November 1st, when Wild goaltender
Josh Harding stymied the Red Wings twice over the course of 4 days in leading Minnesota to consecutive victories over the reeling Red Wings, who were mired in the midst of a season-worst six-game losing streak.
How quickly things can change...
The Wild have gone 23-23-7 since that overtime victory in Detroit, while the Red Wings have rattled off a record of 37-15-2 in the past 4 months. Nevertheless, the Wild are still clinging for life in the playoff hunt, as they trail the Dallas Stars by 5 points for the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The Wild limp into Detroit this morning off the heels of a 5-4 shootout loss in Montreal last night. The point gained was a major victory for the club considering they trailed 4-1 with four minutes remaining in regulation. Despite the fact they were fortunate to garner a point, the loss was Minnesota's third in four games and dropped the Wild's record to 8-19-7 since jumping out to a scorching 20-7-3 start.
To make matters worse, Minnesota may have lost starting goaltender
Niklas Backstrom for an extended period of time when he was unable to get back on his feet after making a save early in the first period of last night's contest. With both Backstrom and captain
Mikko Koivu (shoulder) out of the lineup, it is a tough uphill climb for the Wild in their chase for a playoff spot.
Meanwhile, Detroit has its own injury concerns with their top two players in
Pavel Datsyuk and
Nicklas Lidstrom both out of the lineup. Fortunately,
Kyle Quincey will return to the lineup tonight after missing Tuesday night's victory in Columbus with a groin issue. The Red Wings were staring a fourth consecutive defeat in the face when they fell behind the Blue Jackets 2-1 early in the 3rd period. However, the Wings turned it up a notch when it was needed most, scoring four unanswered goals to grab a comfortable 5-2 victory.
As for Detroit's injury concerns, Lidstrom will not play tonight or Sunday vs. Chicago and will be re-evaluated on Monday, as he nurses a deep bone bruise from last Saturday night vs. Colorado. The swelling has subsided since earlier in the week, however their is still enough pain when he laces up his skates for him to avoid going out there yet. Meanwhile, Datsyuk has not yet skated since having arthroscopic surgery on February 21st. The Red Wings are hopeful he can return to the lineup within the next 10-14 days.
With the Vancouver Canucks defeating the St. Louis Blues 2-0 last night out on the West Coast, the injury-depleted Red Wings have an opportunity to regain sole possesion of the Central Division lead and also move to within one point of Vancouver for the Conference lead and home-ice advantage throughout the duration of the Western Conference playoffs.
In addition to the return of Detroit's main trade deadline acquisition in Quincey, Detroit's much less publicized deadline acquisition continues to impress and earns another opportunity tonight to prove his immediate worth. Defenseman
Brendan Smith impressed with his play on Tuesday night in Columbus and will be playing alongside
Jakub Kindl tonight in what is becoming a final month-long audition for the club's 6th d-man spot for the postseason. With
Jonathan Ericsson not expected to return until late March or early April, both young players will more often than not make up the second half of the team's 3rd defensive pairing most of the rest of the way during the regular season.
Although the Red Wings were unable to acquire the "depth" forward they were looking to obtain at the deadline, the call-up of Smith should not go unnoticed, as it could prove to be an important addition to the lineup given his skating ability and overall talent level.
Given Quincey's return to the lineup,
Doug Janik has been re-assigned to Grand Rapids after having logged over 18 minutes in Detroit's win on Tuesday night.
Here are the expected lines and defense pairings for the Red Wings this evening:
Valteri Filppula - Henrik Zetteberg - Jiri Hudler
Daniel Cleary - Justin Abdelkader - Todd Bertuzzi
Drew Miller - Darren Helm - Johan Franzen
Tomas Holmstrom - Cory Emmerton - Jan Mursak
Niklas Kronwall - Brad Stuart
Kyle Quincey - Ian White
Brendan Smith - Jakub Kindl
Jimmy Howard
Joey MacDonald
Puck drops at 7:30 PM EST at the Joe.
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