After a much needed break, I return to see the Detroit Red Wings have returned to their winning ways, triumphant in their past 5 games outscoring the opposition 22-9 during that stretch.
Two of the hottest teams in the National Hockey League come together for an interesting matchup tonight in Motown. The San Jose Sharks are 12-3 in their past 15 games, having allowed 2 goals or fewer in 11 of those contests. A big reason for their success has been the play of
Antii Niemi in goal. The Finnish goaltender is 12-2-1 in his past 15 appearances with a 1.79 GAA.
As for the Red Wings, there have been a number of positives during this winning streak.....
Todd Bertuzzi’s resurgence offensively, the Cleary-Datsyuk-Hudler line pacing the team with its scoring and most importantly, improved play defensively (not withstanding the 40 shots surrendered against Tampa Bay).
However,
Jimmy Howard’s fine goaltending during this stretch (4-0-0, 1.50 GAA, .949 save percentage) is likely what both Red Wing fans and management were hoping to see most from its sophmore goaltender in order to slightly ease their concerns given Howard’s slight dip in form in comparison to last season’s tremendous debut in the NHL.
Things couldn’t be going better for the Wings at this point in time. With the expected return of
Valteri Filppula and
Mike Modano expected shortly, Detroit will have its full complement of forwards for the first time since early in the regular season. As a result, it will leave at least two healthy regulars in the press box.
Here are the expected lines upon the return of Filppula and Modano the lineup:
Cleary-Datsyuk-Hudler
Franzen-Zetterberg-Bertuzzi
Holmstrom-Modano-Filppula
Abdelkader-Helm-Eaves
(Draper)
(Miller)
The fourth line will likely rotate the wingers with
Darren Helm being the constant in the middle. Coach Babcock has come out and stated he intends to keep the two top lines intact and try
Tomas Holmstrom alongside both Modano and Filppula.
After having Nashville creep to within three points of the division lead only 12 days ago, the Red Wings have restored a 10 point cushion atop the Central Division and firmly entrenched in the second spot in the Western Conference.
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With the recent winning streak, any minor trade rumors involving the Red Wings have quieted down significantly. Add to the fact Ken Holland has once again similarly to last season, publicly stated he expects the returns of injured players Brad Stuart, Mike Modano and Chris Osgood to have similar impacts as any trade deadline acquisitions.
The most common requests from fans appear to be for either an experienced d-man to play on the third pairing, a goaltender as insurance in case Osgood’s form is poor after a lengthy layoff, or the addition of a gritty power forward.
In any instance, the Wings are likely going to need to return some salary in order to acquire a player of any impact. Although capgeek.com indicates the Wings could acquire a player with a max cap hit today of approximately $1.5 million for the season, most of the options out there exceed this figure.
Up front when healthy, the Red Wings already have two forwards that will be healthy scratches. Unless a team wants to take on
Drew Miller for $650,000 as a UFA in order to make a trade work, the Red Wings likely will have difficulty making a play for a forward. A guy many Wing fans clamor for is Ottawa’s
Chris Neil. However, with a salary of $2 million per season for two more seasons, I can’t see the Red Wings making a play when they have several young forwards waiting within the system to make the jump to Detroit.
On the backend, there have been some whispers about the acquisition of an experienced veteran defender to provide depth over the rookie
Jakub Kindl.
Radek Martinek from the New York Islanders might be the only reasonable option. His cap hit is $1.5 million and he is a UFA at season’s end. In the end though, I don’t see Detroit making a move for a d-man to play 8-10 minutes as the team’s 6th defenseman in the playoffs. I think they have enough confidence in both Ericsson and Kindl, if necessary.
As for in goal, the rumor surrounded either acquiring
J.S. Giguere from Toronto as goaltending depth or making a run for
Tomas Vokoun from Florida. I don’t envision either scenario coming to fruition. Holland is notorious for not sinking a significant amount of money into his goaltending position during the salary cap era. Giguere’s $6 million salary makes his chances of ending up in Detroit, miniscule at best. Howard's play over the past two seasons has been solid enough for Detroit's management to be comfortable with him as the #1 for the immediate future. Although Howard will receive a substantial raise next season from his current salary cap hit of $716,667, he won't be making nearly as much as Vokoun will likely command this summer.
It appears as if this year’s trade deadline for Red Wing fans will be another snoozer. The only interest will remain in watching what some of the other Western Conference teams and top Stanley Cup contenders do at the deadline to improve their chances.
Tonight's game preview courtesy of NHL.com:
SHARKS (33-21-6) at RED WINGS (37-16-6)
TV -- CSN-CA (HD), FS-D (HD)
Last 10 -- Sharks 8-2-0; Red Wings 7-3-0
Season series -- This is the third of four meetings between the Western Conference rivals. The Red Wings won the series opener 5-3 on Nov. 30 at the HP Pavilion, while the Sharks earned a 5-2 victory in Detroit on Dec. 6. In their most recent meeting, rookie Logan Couture scored twice and goalie Antti Niemi made 25 saves.
Big story -- Sharks general manager Doug Wilson addressed a need along the blue line last Friday when he acquired Ian White from the Carolina Hurricanes. Wilson dealt a second-round pick in the 2012 Entry Draft for White, a 27-year-old who played 55 games this season with Calgary and Carolina, totaling 2 goals and 16 points. He had an assist -- the 100th of his career -- Saturday against Colorado in his first game with the Sharks, and played 18:08 paired with Niclas Wallin.
"He's a good puck-mover, a good first-passer," Wilson said. "He plays the point on the power play. He's very competitive. He's kind of an over-achiever. We think he's a good player at creating offense, moving pucks and shooting pucks."
Team Scope:
Sharks -- San Jose is 12-2-1 over its last 15 games and sits fourth in the Western Conference with 72 points, one behind third-place Phoenix. The team is coming off a 4-0 victory -- its third straight win -- against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. Devin Setoguchi collected his first career hat trick and Niemi stopped 25 shots in the win. It was Niemi's fifth shutout of the season and the 12th of his career.
Red Wings -- Todd Bertuzzi celebrated his 1,000th career NHL game in style Sunday, scoring a pretty top-shelf goal to clinch a 2-1 shootout victory Minnesota. Bertuzzi became the 261st player in NHL history to reach the 1,000-game milestone. The victory was a season-high fifth straight for the Wings, who received a 25-save performance by Jimmy Howard. Howard stopped Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Matt Cullen in the shootout.
Who's hot -- The Sharks' Setoguchi has 12 points in his last 12 games (8 goals, 4 assists). … Red Wings forward Jiri Hudler is making the most of his opportunity playing on a line with Pavel Datsyuk, scoring 2 goals and 9 points in seven games together.
Injury report -- San Jose defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic (upper-body) and goalie Antero Niittymaki (lower-body) are listed as day-to-day. … Detroit is still without forwards Valtteri Filppula (knee) and Mike Modano (wrist), and goalie Chris Osgood (sports hernia surgery). Filppula might return Thursday.
Stat pack -- Detroit All-Star defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom currently ranks ninth all-time among NHL blueliners with 249 goals, sixth with 844 assists and sixth with 1,093 points.
Puck drop -- "I was lucky to get a second shot at coming back to Detroit, playing some fun hockey and around some quality, quality guys," said Bertuzzi following his milestone game. "I've played on some good teams and with some good players, but I'm pretty proud and excited to be playing in a Detroit uniform."
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