On the Wings

The Wings will face their first Central Division opponent tonight when they face the Blues in St. Louis at 8:00 ET. It is the first of eight games these two teams will play against each other this season, thanks to the intradivison play-heavy NHL scheduling format. The Wings won the 2005-2006 season series 7-1, with their only loss to the Blues coming November 19th, 2005 (2-3).

The Blues began the season with a rough road trip to three Pacific Division cities, San Jose, LA, and Anaheim, and came out with just a point from an OT loss. Their wins this season have come against two struggling teams, the Hawks (twice) and the Bruins. They’ve lost to the Coyotes, a shame to any team this season, especially given the 5-2 score. They are third in the Central Division, having lost their #2 spot when the Wings’ won last night. The Blues are are coming off a 4-3 win over the Blackhawks in Chicago a full week ago.

After such a ridiculously long break - especially at this time of the season, where teams are warming up and don’t need the rest - the Blues could be cold in contrast to the Wings, who have some momentum built up with two recent games. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch sees this as a concern but notes that the team had a few intense practices that the players believe kept them sharp during the last week.

The Dispatch has another piece today that looks at the next five games the Blues are to play, which will be against teams that were in the playoffs last year. Their angle is that this stretch of games will be an indication of the Blues’ playoff-readiness. Seems to me that it’s a little early to be thinking about that, guys. The article also has a little gem from Manny Legace where he compares Steve Yzerman to William Wallace.

Another Dispatch story of interest is the cleverly named “Defenseman hopes river of change stops here,” which is about unlamented former Red Wings defenseman Jamie Rivers.

There’s a good chance that the Wings will face off against their former teammate, Manny Legace, tonight.

The Wings are coming off a 4-3 win of their own, though theirs came over the then-Conference-leading Dallas Stars last night (a game I was unfortunately unable to watch). Their offense finally produced (though two goals still came from a defenseman, Nick Lidstrom), but their penalty kill is still unacceptably bad. All three of the Stars’ goals came on the power play, but Ted Kulfan sees hope in the fact that they killed off a 4-minute double minor in the second period. Hopefully that was enough to get the PK unit going again.

Beyond the fact that the Wings finally scored more than a goal or two, the other good news appears to be that Dominik Hasek looked good last night, making several key saves at the end of the game, according to the papers. He’ll get a chance to rest tonight, however, as Chris Osgood will be in net for the Wings.

Mikael Samuelsson and Brad Norton did not play last night, though Johan Franzen did. Samuelsson participated in the team workout yesterday, however, but will not return until he is able to shoot the puck effectively, according to the News. George Sipple has a piece about Franzen in today’s Free Press that points out the incongruity of a defensive forward like him would have the most shots of anyone on the team going into the Stars game (28).

Now that the Wings have a little bit of momentum, tonight is a perfect opportunity to build on it. Although I was unable to watch last night, I get the impression that they played with intensity, and if they can continue to do so tonight, they shouldn’t have much trouble against the Blues.

NHL.com preview