A power outage across much of downtown Detroit Tuesday morning left Joe Louis Arena in the dark and wiped out morning skates for both the Detroit Red Wings and Florida Panthers, but the Wings confirmed that problem would be resolved in time for the 7:30 p.m. game between the two teams.
“There’s something wrong, but I hear it’s the whole area, so they’ll get it worked out and we’ll be playing tonight,… Detroit coach Mike Babcock said.
“I don’t know how it’s going to affect anything. It’s a long way from game time.…
The Wings had just concluded their pre-game meetings and were ready to take the ice when the lights went out around 10:30 a.m.
“We had a backup (generator) so we can turn our TVs on and have our meetings anyway,… Babcock said. “We’ll be ready to go.…
The Wings also endured a 35-minute delay Sunday in their game at Vancouver when the power failed at Joe Louis Arena just 29 seconds after the opening faceoff.
As with that instance, Babcock felt the best approach was to roll with the punches and just get on with it.
“What am I going to do?… he asked. “I’ve done all my work. So I’m going to go home. We didn’t have to skate, didn’t have to watch them, didn’t have to do anything. It was perfect.
“Let’s just get ready to play. We had our meetings already, so we’re ready to go.…
Abdelkader Update Even if he hadn’t suffered a shoulder injury in Sunday’s game against the Canucks, Detroit left-winger Justin Abdelkader wouldn’t have likely been able to suit up for Tuesday’s game regardless, as he was struck with the flu overnight.
“He’s not going today, but he’s sick at home anyway, he’s throwing up,… Babcock said. “So we’ll kind of see how it is tomorrow and then get a read and see where he’s going.…
As far as Abdelkader’s shoulder is concerned, Babcock indicated there was no long-term projection at this point.
I don’t know how long he’s going to be,… Babcock said.
Line Juggling Minus Abdelkader, the Wings will be forced to mix and match their forward units.
“(Joakim) Andersson’s in the lineup and I’ll move Mule (Johan Franzen) with Z (Henrik Zetterberg) and Pav (Datsyuk),… Babcock said. “Mule’s got to be at the net front. That’s a priority for him.
“If not, (Tomas) Jurco will go there. We’ve got Jurco playing with (Darren) Helm and (Stephen) Weiss and (Riley) Sheahan’s line is the same (with Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist).…
Andersson will skate on the fourth line with Luke Glendening and Drew Miller.
Special Status The Wings are currently rated among the top 10 in both power play (sixth) and penalty kill (fourth). The last time the Wings finished a season in the top 10 in both special team categories was in 2009-10 when they were ninth on the power play and 10th in the penalty kill.
“They’re critical for us,… Babcock said. “Both (assistant coaches) Tony (Granato penalty kill) and Jim (Hiller, power play) have done a really nice job. As a staff we put a lot of importance on that stuff. We consider the shootouts now to be a third specialty team, we have to get a lot better at that. We don’t like to get in them, but we have to get better at it.
“They’re all parts of the game that you want to do real well. Your ability to keep the puck out of your net is absolutely critical if you want to have success. We have to sharpen up our game on the penalty kill. We’ve given up some goals on that lately.
“It’s fun for the guys to score goals. The power play helps your offensive guys feel good because they feel like they’re getting their touches and opportunity to score so those things are important. They’re all part of winning hockey.
“We got off to a fairly good start now we just have to keep building.…
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