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The Detroit Red Wings look to put a wrap on a strong month of October when they host the defending Stanley Cup champions tonight at the Joe Louis Arena (7:30pm ET, Fox Sports Detroit).
The Wings currently sit in third place in the NHL’s Atlantic Division with a record of 5-2-2 following Wednesday night’s strong 4-2 road victory in Washington against the Capitals. Faced with a strong schedule over the course of the season’s first 10 games, a victory tonight would provide Detroit with 14 out of a possible 20 points to start the season and a solid foundation to battle the likes of Montreal, Tampa and Boston for the Atlantic Division Crown.
Most importantly, Coach
Mike Babcock has to be relatively pleased with what he has seen thus far from his team.
Jimmy Howard has been extremely strong in goal to start the season, as evidenced by his 1.96 GAA and .928 save percentage through his opening seven starts in goal. That strong play in goal, along with the team’s excellent penalty killing to date (93.8%) and relative consistent effort in their own end from both their blueliners and forwards has the club sitting in the Top 10 in goals against per game to start the season (8th at 2.00 GA/game).
Up front, the most important aspect to Detroit’s early success has to be the return to health and form for both
Henrik Zetterberg and
Pavel Datsyuk. It’s no secret they are the straws that stir the drinks for this hockey club. In addition,
Justin Abdelkader has taken full advantage of his playing time in the club’s top six, effectively playing the
Tomas Holmstrom role alongside #13 and #40 and scoring a team-high five goals through his opening nine games. Not to be outdone,
Gustav Nyquist has continued his torrid scoring pace from last season with five goals of his own.
Not everything has gone perfectly for the Wings thus far. Youngsters
Tomas Tatar,
Riley Sheahan and
Tomas Jurco, who played a monumental role in keeping the Red Wings afloat last season amidst their injury woes, have struggled out of the gate offensively. Meanwhile, forward
Stephen Weiss’ second season in Detroit has not gotten off to a promising start, as he has only played in 1 game thus far and his conditioning stint in Grand Rapids on Wednesday night was cut short after two periods due to a sore groin.
Nevertheless, the Red Wings welcome in the Kings tonight for a Halloween matchup with Los Angeles coming off a disappointing 3-0 loss in Pittsburgh last night. If there is ever an ideal time to get the defending Stanley Cup champions, tonight is the night for Detroit, as the Kings are playing their third road game in four nights, known to be an extremely difficult scheduling spot.
Injuries plus the indefinite suspension of defenseman
Slava Voynov have presented Los Angeles with a challenge during their current road-trip. The Kings are missing forwards
Marian Gaborik,
Anze Kopitar and
Trevor Lewis because of upper-body injuries. Kopitar did participate in the morning skate yesterday in Pittsburgh, but did not end up playing versus the Penguins.
In goal,
Jonathan Quick returns to the pipes after getting the night off in Pittsburgh. He has been extremely hot for the Kings - with a 1.14 GAA during a 5-0-1 stretch, yet he is 2-7-1 with a 3.48 GAA over his last 10 starts against Detroit.
However, including the post-season, Detroit is 25-6-0 with two ties in the last 33 meetings at the Joe Louis Arena. The Red Wings have won the past five matchups at the Joe, beating Quick each time as he's registered a surprising 3.57 GAA.
As far as the Red Wings,
Johan Franzen continues to practice and although he is not expecting to play tonight, he is hopeful to return to the lineup on Sunday when the Red Wings face the Buffalo Sabres. At that point in time, it will be interesting to see what roster move is made by the Wings to accommodate his return. Will
Tomas Jurco be returned to Grand Rapids as he is the only "waiver-exempt" player in the lineup? Or will one of the veterans be exposed to the waiver wire? Likely the latter, but we should find out soon enough.
UPDATE - (11:46 AM ET): Weiss goes on IR to make room for Franzen
Here are tonight's expected forward lines and pairings:
DETROIT RED WINGS
Abdelkader – Datsyuk – Zetterberg
Nyquist– Sheahan - Tatar
Nestrasil – Helm - Jurco
Miller – Glendening – Andersson
Kronwall - Ericsson
Quincey - DeKeyser
Smith – Kindl
Howard
(Gustavsson)
Franzen (groin)
Weiss (scratch)
Cleary (scratch)
Lashoff (scratch)
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