On the Wings

Update (4:18 PM): Joe Hass is handling the liveblog over at Behind the Jersey tonight. - Matt

Update (2:08 PM): HockeyTownTodd provides his perspective on the decision to start Chris Osgood over Dominik Hasek as well as other decisions by Babcock in this series. - Matt

Update (1:20 PM): Ansar Khan has a reaction from Darren Helm himself. - Matt

Update (12:34 PM): Great news: Darren Helm is in for Mark Hartigan tonight, reports Helene St. James.

Helm brings tons of speed and has plenty of skill. His downside is a lack of size, but with the right linemates, he should be effective. More so than Hartigan, at least.  - Matt

Update (10:21 PM): George Malik brings up another angle on the decision to switch goalies mid-series: the Predators have Dominik Hasek’s former goaltending coach on staff and are reading him like a book. - Matt

Tonight is the fifth game of the Western Conference Quarterfinal series between the Detroit Red Wings and the Nashville Predators. The series is tied 2-2, with the home team winning each game thus far:

Game 1 (3-1, Detroit)
Game 2 (4-2, Detroit)
Game 3 (5-3, Nashville)
Game 4 (3-2, Nashville)

For the Predators, this isn’t quite a must-win game because they have one more home date remaining and could stay alive with a win at home Sunday. However, a win today would be a knife in the back of Detroit and would require just a turn or two this weekend to finish them off.

Some keys for Nashville:

Score first. They did it Wednesday and never looked back. For them, the earlier they score, the better.

Run the Wings. As long as they’re getting away with it, they might as well take liberties with Detroit.

Dan Ellis. He’s shown a tendency to give up bad rebounds, but when the Wings were staging a comeback attempt in Game 4, he suddenly become a puck vacuum. If he can control rebounds like that again, it will go a long way in keeping the Wings from scoring.

There shouldn’t be any lineup changes for Nashville, but my guess is David Legwand will still be a game-time decision.

For the Wings, this is a definite must-win game. They cannot afford to go down 3-2 as they head back to Nashville Sunday. As it is, they have very little to build on in this game. They have to find a way to pick up where they left off in the third period of Game 4.

Some keys for Detroit:

Two goals in the first ten minutes. It is essential that the Wings come out hard tonight and putting a couple in the net during the first half of the period will help them take control of the game. Barring two goals, 10 quality shots and 8 total minutes of pressure would constitute a “hard” first ten.

Composure. Something they’ve been lacking this series. Either they get some or they’re done.

Chris Osgood. The Wings need to play in front of their goalie, but Ozzie needs to be the same steadying force he was after replacing Dominik Hasek in Game 4. The perception is, and I can’t say it’s wrong, that the Wings are in desparate straits to be switching goalies mid-series. Osgood needs to validate that decision.

The big lineup change, obviously, is Chris Osgood. It’s also possible that we may see Darren Helm or Justin Abdelkader enter the lineup. If so, my hope is that one of them would replace Mark Hartigan, but it’s probably likely to be someone else.

Defensively, Babcock has said he’ll return to the standard Lidstrom-Rafalski and Kronwall-Stuart pairings. It’s also possible that Andreas Lilja will return from his time out in the corner.

The Wings have been in this position as recently as the Flames series last season. In that Game 5, they came out with a dominating performance and won 5-1. That’s what they need tonight.