WING THINGS
CLEAR THE AIR
The Red Wings took to the ice at Comerica Park Wednesday as part of the lead up to their Winter Classic showdown against the Leafs New Years Day. With the frustration of a six game winless streak mounting and five straight losses at home, a little fresh air may be just what the Wings need.
The media is busy crafting nostalgic stories about players taking their first strides as kids on a backyard rink, or tales of the first hockey games played in the United States on the frozen Lower School Pond at St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire.
The best thing that Wednesday’s outdoor practice can do for the Wings is change up the routine, and snap the Winged Wheel out of this December rut. Getting out of Joe Louis Arena has served the team well so far this season, maybe the practice at Comerica Park will work just the same.
TROUBLES ON TUESDAY
After Thomas Jurco scored a beauty for his first NHL goal on Tuesday night, the Wings allowed five straight goals against a strong Anaheim team. Jakob Silfverberg’s goal came 25 seconds after Jurco’s and from that point on, it was all Ducks.
The Wings were awful defensively against the Ducks. If you weren’t counting the players on the ice, you might think that the Ducks were scoring on the powerplay based on how lax the Detroit defensive coverage was. The Red Wings left the Ducks wide open, lost battles, and all in all got out-worked for the vast majority of the game.
TIME TO PANIC?
Yes and No.
No, because of the obvious, the injuries that the Wings are trying to play through are major ones. The eight players out of the line up are major players. DeKeyser is one of the Wings’ best defensemen, Zetterberg is one of the best players in the world, Franzen, Nyquist, Helm, and Abdelkader make up the bulk of Detroit’s secondary scoring, and Jimmy Howard is struggling but nevertheless the Wings starting goalie. It isn’t as if the players that are out are peripheral players, only playing a few minutes a game, they are game changers. Especially with the style in which Detroit plays, you can’t replace half the lineup and expect the same results.
Yes, also because of the obvious. Every team in the NHL gets bit with the injury bug once and a while and it doesn’t mean that the schedule gets any easier. The teams that find success over the course of the year are the teams that overcome adversity and find a way to win, no matter what. The Wings have only managed to squeak out two wins in December. They haven’t won at The Joe since November 27th. They haven’t won a game at all in their last six starts. They’ve given up leads and lost games they should have won. The latest shootout loss to the Lightning set a new NHL record for consecutive shootout losses (11). There is plenty to panic about. With the Leafs only two points behind the Wings and Tampa Bay ahead by four points with two games in hand, the midway point of the season is quickly approaching and the Red Wings don’t have too much time to keep losing while they wait on key players to return.
TONIGHT’S GAME
The Flames come to The Joe tonight and the Wings need a win. The Flames are second last in the Pacific Division but are 4-3-1 so far in December. The last time these two teams met, it was the second game of a Western road trip for the Wings during which they won three of a possible four games and snapped a four game winless streak.
Detroit team will look very different from their last meeting with six players that played in the last game out of the lineup tonight.
Former Red Wing Jiri Hudler leads the Flames with 30 points (9G, 21A) in 34 games. The next closest scorer on the Flames is rookie Sean Monahan who has 16 points in 27 games.
Calgary is a dismal 13.9% on the powerplay and even worse on the road where that conversion rate dips to 10.8%.
PROJECTED LINES
RED WINGS
Jurco – Datsyuk – Alfredsson Miller – Andersson – Tatar Bertuzzi – Sheahan – Tootoo Cleary – Glendenning – Eaves
Kronwall – Ericsson Quincey – Smith Kindl – Lashoff
Jonas Gustavsson (starting) Petr Mrazek
Injuries: Zetterberg, Helm, Dekeyser, Weiss, Howard, Nyquist, Franzen, Abdelkader
FLAMES
Glencross – Stajan – Stempniak Cammaleri - Backlund – Jones Byron – Monahan – Hudler Bouma – Colbourne – McGratten
Smid – Giordano Butler – O’Brien Russell – Brodie
Karri Ramo (starting) Reto Berra
Injuries: Wideman