Ansar Khan has the latest on Darren Helm, who may have avoided a conditioning stint with the Griffins due to AHL scheduling. He feels good to go, but Babcock seems a bit reluctant to just insert him in the Wings’ lineup without some games played .
However, the fact that the Griffins don’t play until Saturday may force Babs’ hand because they want to use him in Detroit sooner rather than later. Delaying things another two NHL games is too far on the later side. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him suit up tomorrow night against the Sabres.
Osgood, deservedly, will start his third straight. Khan says to expect Howard to start either Thursday or Saturday. Good assumption on his part. Jimmy needs to get back in the saddle and a gap much longer than sometime this week won’t help him do that. But how will his confidence be if he fails to stop the puck against the lowly Avs or Kings?
Also, it looks like May’s going to be more of a lineup mainstay than just about anyone outside the organization thought: the scratches tomorrow night will apparently include two of Maltby, Draper, Eaves or Helm. Given that Maltby rotated in on the top line and was given a charley horse by a helpful Justin Abdelkader in practice, I think his odds of playing are slim.
Tomorrow’s game should be very interesting. Ryan Miller has been fantastic putting up a 0.99 GAA, a 0.955 save %, and a shutout. Buffalo’s offense, however, stinks only scoring 4 goals in 3 games. I, personally, would start Howard against them for that reason alone. I think LA could pose much more of a threat to Jimmy, Kopitar has been absolutely on fire, and they have a pretty decent up-and-coming team.
John,
Didn’t realize that about Miller. Sounds like the rest of the Sabres need to get with the program. Just not tomorrow night. You make a good point about Jimmy. I guess Babcock wants to give Jimmy more of a challenge. The Avs haven’t been bad so far this season either.
“The Avs haven’t been bad so far this season either.”
Yeah, I know. Truth is, the list of bad teams gets shorter every year.
You catch that Hawks/Flames game? That was frigging nuts, how Calgary blew a 5-0 lead is beyond me. I wonder how long until Niemi is the starter, Huet is an absolute joke. It’s gonna be fun next summer to watch the good, young players they are gonna lose because of the contracts of Huet and Campbell.
People are saying now that Chicago is the team to beat, because they came back in that game. They seem to have forgotten that in order to come back from a 5 goal deficit, you first have to give up five goals. I guess that’s why Chicago is so much better than the Wings.
Chicago really doesn’t worry me all that much. Is it possible they could beat out the Wings for the division now that Franzen is out? Yeah, it’s possible. But we all know if the Wings and Hawks meet in the playoffs, and Osgood and Huet are the goalies, the Wings win, every time. In the playoffs, you don’t come back from 5 goals down, ever. For God’s sake, Huet gave up 3 goals in a span of 53 seconds, FIFTY THREE SECONDS, THREE GOALS. That’s all I need to know about the Hawks’ as contenders.
Holy crap!! 53 seconds?!?! I did not see that! How does that even happen? Yeah, it’s possible that the Hawks could win the division. And that would suck. But as a Wings fan, I know that in the end, it doesn’t matter. Only the Cup matters. Sure, it’d be nice to have home ice advantage, but the Wings are a good road team. And there’s always Huet. The knowledge that he’s on that team, and for a good amount of time and ridiculous amount of money, helps me to sleep at night. That, and their coming offseason.