Update (6:55 PM): Ansar Khan reports that Meech will sit out tonight with a charlie horse. It turns out the awkward collision with the Ducks player (Ryan Carter) resulted in an injury, after all. Maltby will return to the lineup.
Lebda is confirmed as a scratch in favor of Chelios now. - Matt
… This is the third of four games between these two teams this season. Detroit leads the series 2-0-0 with a shootout win Oct. 27 and a regulation win Dec. 20.
… The Kings are 2-3-0 in 2009 and 4-5-0 since we last saw them. Their 17-19-6 record is good for 14th in the Conference and last in the Pacific Division. They are a mere six points behind 8th-place Columbus, however.
… They’re coming off a pair of home losses to Eastern Conference teams (New Jersey and Tampa Bay), but beat cross-town rival Anaheim just prior to that.
… George Malik has more “scouting” of the Kings here.
… The Wings are coming off a 4-3 regulation win over Anaheim last night. It was a solid rebound game from their 5-4 overtime loss to Dallas Monday night, despite the fact that it required they play catch up twice before finally pulling ahead.
… The game-winner was a controversial goal scored by Johan Franzen, who demonstrated excellent hand-eye coordination in knocking the puck out of the air at near cross-bar height. The play was ruled a goal on the ice, and apparently conclusive evidence that contact was made above the bar was not found. It seemed likely to me that it’d get overturned, but right or wrong, it wasn’t.
… Pavel Datsyuk continues to dominate the ice. Last night was yet another very strong game by #13.
… Derek Meech and the Wings’ depth dodged a bullet in the second period when the young defenseman (playing forward) was hit awkwardly by an Anaheim player and fell badly on his knee. He was able to return to the game in the third period, however, and a strong shift of his early in the final frame helped set up Dan Cleary’s tying goal.
… Christy Hammond has a recap over at the Hockeytown Blog, and Dennis has some comments on the game at Red Wings and Beer.
… Brett Lebda, who can’t seem to get out of Mike Babcock’s doghouse, sat out the third period last night. It’s likely he’ll sit out tonight as well. Babcock told the media Chris Chelios would enter the lineup, but wouldn’t say who’d be scratched. With Lebda riding the pine for 20 minutes last night while Meech played, speculating on the scratch doesn’t require much guessing.
… Ty Conklin will get the start tonight.
… The Wings need to be careful tonight not to look ahead to the San Jose game at the expense of paying attention to the Kings. LA isn’t having a great season, but they are certainly capable of notching a win over careless teams. This will be a pretty good test of the Wings’ concentration and second-half comittment to improving their play as they head into the playoffs.