On the Wings

Tonight is the third of eight games between these two teams this season. The Jackets tied the season series 1-1 with their 4-3 over the Wings on Monday in Columbus. Detroit won the first meeting, 4-1 at home on November 4th. The teams will play again on the 28th.

The Jackets are seeing this game as a “barometer,” as Columbus Dispatch writer Michael Arace puts it. For a team hoping to surmount an 8-point gap between their position at 13th and the Canucks or Flames’ position at 7th and 8th, a win tonight is important. They know that they’ll be in trouble if they let the Wings dominate like they did in the second and third periods and you know that Ken Hitchcock has them prepared for the second round.

Adam Foote, who is out with a hamstring injury (the papers will only say it might be a hamstring, but he confirmed it during the Versus broadcast on Monday), is questionable for tonight. He had a full practice yesterday, though, so he can’t be very far from returning. Hopefully it won’t be tonight.

The Wings had the day off yesterday. I guess Babcock is satisfied with their performance in the second and third periods and didn’t feel there was a need to work on anything that can’t be covered in a morning skate today.

The two Detroit papers focus on Matt Ellis and his NHL debut today (Freep, News). He may very well get a second game under his belt, as Mikael Samuelsson is questionable for tonight. Babcock told George Sipple he’d know more about Sammy’s situation today.

Ansar Khan reports that Chris Osgood, “is likely to make his first start in goal tonight since Nov. 2.”

The Wings need to pick up where they left off on Monday and work to overwhelm the Blue Jacket defense. Fredrik Norrena is a good goalie, apparently, but he does have potential for bad games. I doubt he’ll suddenly be five-goals-in-a-period bad like he was against the Hawks on Saturday, but he probably won’t be 33-save good either, especially if the Wings come out flying.