On the Wings

Update (4:20 PM): Dominik Hasek will start tonight. - Matt Update (8:06 PM, just before the puck drop): Apparently, Dom has the flu, so Osgood will be the starter instead. - Matt

Update (5:45 PM): Ansar Khan has some thoughts worth reading on starting Dominik Hasek versus starting Chris Osgood down the stretch. I couldn’t agree more. The Wings have been smart so far, but playing Dom as much as they have been will be a mistake, especially given the fact that they have an entirely capable backup. I’m especially shocked to see that he’s been cleared to play back-to-back games. Why stray from the plan now? It makes no sense. Hasek is on this team to play and win in the playoffs, not win us the Central Division. If they somehow think playing Osgood means they won’t win the Division, so be it.

Khan also says Babcock is challenging Valtteri Filppula and Jiri Hudler to prove they’re ready for more minutes. Apparently, they haven’t been doing enough with the time they’ve been given, though I thought they’d been doing pretty darn well.

Apparently, our line projections earlier were a little off, as Khan says the three GR call-ups will be together tonight. So, does that make Williams-Filppula-Hudler the #2 scoring line? If Franzen, Cleary, and Maltby are together, I’d say it does. Tonight’s a great opportunity for the young guns. - Matt

Update (12:45 PM): Not that there was any doubt after the call-ups, but the Freep confirms that Lang and Draper are too sick to play and that they will be replaced in the lineup by Ellis and Hussey. - Matt

Update (9:38 AM): It looks like Kris Draper and Robert Lang will both sit out with the flu tonight as the Wings have called up Matt Ellis and Matt Hussey from Grand Rapids. To fill in for Ellis and Hussey in GR, Evan McGrath was called up from Toledo and Jamie Tardiff was given a professional tryout.

This’ll mean a bit of line shuffling for tonight. Megan and I project these lines:

Holmstrom-Datsyuk-Zetterberg
Hudler/Langfeld-Williams-Cleary
Franzen-Ellis-Maltby
Hudler/Langfeld-Filppula-Hussey

With Hudler playing as well as he has, he could very well move up to the second line, as Dave of Gorilla Crouch proposed yesterday. Ellis may center the checking line since he’s very good at faceoffs, but Franzen is also a likely choice. - Matt

Tonight is the fifth of eight games between these two clubs this season. The Wings lead the series 3-1, with wins October 28th (3-2), December 5th (5-1), and December 7th (4-3 OT). The Blues won the November 24th meeting, 3-2. They’ll play twice more next month before finishing up the 8-game series on March 24th in Detroit.

The last time we saw the Blues, they were in the midst of what would turn out to be a 0-8-3 losing streak and were falling as fast as they could. However, since December 19th, when they beat Pittsburgh 4-1 on the road, they’ve put up a 12-2-2 record, making them the hottest team in the League going into the All Star Break. If they can continue this and things go their way with the other teams, they’ll be able to think playoffs. They are currently just eight points behind Minnesota for eighth in the conference, but don’t have much room for error as the season hits the final stretch. Their upcoming schedule is tough and maintaining momentum will be very difficult.

One of the biggest reasons for the Blues’ recent success has been former Red Wing Manny Legace, who is 10-2-2 in his last 14 starts. He has posted an impressive .928 save-percentage in that span and earned three shutouts.

The Wings have not been quite as successful since December 19th, posting an 11-5-1 record in that span, with those losses coming in clumps of three and two. They are six points behind Nashville for the division lead with 65 and will need to have a fortunate finish if they want to catch the Predators by season’s end. An exhausted Detroit team dropped two games going into the All Star Break, first to Columbus and then to Colorado the next night. Only one player, Nick Lidstrom was in the Game so the team should be well-rested now and ready to go for the 33-game sprint to the post-season.

I assume Dominik Hasek will start tonight for the Wings, though the team did say a couple weeks ago that Chris Osgood would get the nod more often toward the end of the month.

Mikael Samuelsson is out with a broken/fractured right foot and will be replaced in the lineup by Josh Langfeld.

Mathieu Schneider remains out with a knee sprain.

Robert Lang and Kris Draper couldn’t practice because of the flu yesterday and if either one of them can’t go tonight, the Wings will call up someone from Grand Rapids.

It’ll be good to return to meaningful hockey now that the Break is over. After the rest, I expect the Wings to be back to form and to put up a good performance tonight. The Blues are playing well and can smell a shot at the post-season, but they’re still vulnerable and the Wings need to take advantage of it. Should be a high-tempo game with some good goaltending and hopefully Detroit’ll come out on top.