Update (5:07 PM): According to John Niyo of the Detroit News, Joey MacDonald will be in net tonight as Chris Osgood was sent back to Detroit to recover from the flu instead of going to Denver with the team. (via Gorilla Crouch). - Matt
Tonight is the second of four games between these two teams this season. The Wings won the first meeting, 3-4 in a shootout on January 9th in Denver. The teams will meet again on the 28th and will wrap up the season series on March 4th.
Since losing to the Wings on the 9th, the Avs have gone 2-2-0, bringing their record for January to 5-2-1. They last played Wednesday night, a game in which they beat Phoenix 4-3. On Monday, though, they lost 3-1 in San Jose. Two days after they lost to the Wings in a shootout, they lost to the Flames in regulation, 7-3. They then went on to beat Anaheim, 3-2.
It looks like Peter Budaj is solidifying his spot as the Avs’ starter. Big-name goalie Jose Theodore has not played a full game since Colorado’s 3-2 win over Chicago on December 23rd, and has either been pulled early or played relief duty since.
The Wings’ win-streak was snapped at five last night when they lost 3-1 to the Blue Jackets last night in an uninspiring performance in Columbus. They looked flat for much of the game, with the exception of a span of time surrounding their 3rd period goal. The Jackets, on the other hand, looked highly motivated and probably could have won by a wider margin. The Wings ran into penalty trouble, with at least two hooking penalties being accompanied by a textbook dive on Anson Carter’s part. It just wasn’t the Wings’ night.
The choice of goaltender tonight depends on Chris Osgood’s health. If he’s over the flu, he’ll be the starter. If he’s not, Joey MacDonald will get some more NHL action. For those of us who have questioned the logic of starting Dominik Hasek against the weaker team of a back-to-back series (guilty), Ken Daniels of FSN had some insight last night after the game. He said that the Wings don’t want Dom to have to play in the second game of such situations because he doesn’t get the full pre-game regimin due to the fact that few players skate on that second day. Since travel has been involved each time the Wings have had to play back-to-back, Dom was even less likely to ever play the second night. I can understand that reasoning, though it’s very unfortunate that the first team always seems to be the weaker of the two, while the starter on the second night often seems to be thrown to the wolves.
Mathieu Schneider remains out with a second-degree MCL sprain. According to Ansar Khan, it’s a 3-4 week recovery time, which would put his return at January 28th at the earliest.
The Wings need to rebound with a better game tonight. They cannot play like they did last night and expect to have chance against Colorado, especially if Joey MacDonald is in net. For his sake, at least, they’ll need to be tighter. Their last game against Colorado was one of their best games this season. It would be great to see a similar performance out of them tonight.
So the Wings travelled from Columbus to Denver overnight? Although it was not as demanding as in 2001 playoffs when they played against the LA Kings in the western conference quarter finals. I remembered that just one night after the Wings defeated the Kings in Detroit, they lost to the Kings at the Staples Center in LA where the game (Game 3) started at 11:30 PM ET! I’m not sure if that foreshadowed the early exit for the Wings as they lost the next 4 games to the Kings.
Yes, they left Columbus for Denver right after the game. Ken Daniels said they were scheduled to arrive there at midnight local time.
The Wings have been screwed on travel for years and the idiocy of having to fly all over the West has definitely been a factor in their stretches of playoff failure. That’s why a first round opponent such as Nashville, despite their talent, would be much more desirable than Anaheim or San Jose.