On the Wings

This afternoon, the Wings and Avs meet for the third time this season. They’ve split the series thus far, with Detroit winning the first meeting, 4-3 in a shootout on January 9th in Denver, and Colorado winning the second, 3-1 on January 20th, also in Denver. The final game will be on March 4th at Joe Louis Arena.

The Avs have played only one game since beating the Wings before the All-Star Break, a 5-4 shootout loss to Phoenix. It was only their second overtime or shootout loss this month (6-2-2), but it was a hard one to swallow as they blew a 4-2 lead after scoring three goals in the second period.

Today’s game in Detroit is a short break from a long series of 8 home games for the Avs, who will host Nashville, Minnesota, Edmonton, Florida, and Atlanta before another short road trip to Dallas on February 11th.

Colorado is ninth in the conference, just four points behind the Wild for 8th and five behind Vancouver for 7th. As far as first round matchups go, I think this would be a good one, but it’s not that likely.

According to Adrian Dater of the Denver Post, Jose Theodore will get his first start since December 27th, when he allowed five goals on 22 shots.

The Wings also have played just one game since they last saw the Avs, a 2-1 overtime loss in St. Louis. It was their third loss in a row, though the fact that they earned a point is some consolation. Their month of January has been one of clumped success or lack of it, with two three-game losing streaks and one five-game winning streak (plus a separate win at the start of the month).

They’ll will be shuttling back and forth between the Eastern Seaboard and Joe Louis for the next week and a half, playing both New York teams on the road and St. Louis and Phoenix at home.

Detroit is sitting at 6th place in the conference with 66 points, nine points back of Nashville. The Sharks also have 66 points but because they’ve played 49 games to the Wings 50 and have a better points percentage, they’re one spot ahead.

As of 10:15 AM, Stefan Liv has not been called up from Grand Rapids, so it appears that either Joey MacDonald or Dominik Hasek has recovered enough from the flu to play.

It also looks like Robert Lang and Kris Draper will, in fact, return, as neither Matt Ellis nor Matt Hussey are listed as having been called up.

Mathieu Schneider may make his return this afternoon, though it’s more likely we won’t see him until Tuesday night on Long Island. Schneider, the team’s 1B defenseman, is listed by Helene St. James as one of two players most likely to leave after this season (the other being Robert Lang) as footnote to another piece promoting the acquisition of Peter Forsberg*. I’ll be extremely disappointed if Schneider isn’t re-signed, because he’s one of the most underrated defensemen in the league and the Wings are a much better team with him.

The Wings need to get back on track and a spirited game with their old rivals should be a great way to do that. If everyone’s healthy, there’s little excuse not to put up a strong performance and win a game in front of the home crowd. The game is on NBC, by the way.

*I like Ansar Khan’s take on Forsberg. (via Gorilla Crouch)