… The Oilers lost their one game since Saturday, 6-3 n Toronto.

… They’re now 11 points out of a playoff spot, sitting at 14th in the West.

… It looks like the Oilers could be without Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Tom Renney.

… Khabibulin is the presumed starter.

… The Wings also lost their one game since Saturday: 3-1 in Phoenix.

… Thanks to the Blues 3-1 win over the Senators last night, their lead in the Central has been cut to 3 points. The Predators are also 3 back of them now since they earned a point at home against Vancouver in a shootout loss. The Blackhawks lost in regulation to Colorado, however, and remain at a more comfortable distance.

… Jan Mursak’s out and so is Mike Commodore.

… Joey MacDonald’s getting another start, which is good news relatively speaking. Jimmy skated, but didn’t face any shots. Apparently, he could be back as soon as Sunday.

… The Wings stumbled Monday, but need to get back on the horse tonight. They took the Oilers too lightly on Saturday and can’t make that mistake again.

Not with the Blues still on their annoyingly persistent trajectory.

Also, there’s this:

NHL has offered to pay $3,000,000 for license to use Big House for Winter Classic. @DaveBrandonAD calls it a great opportunity

— Jeff Arnold (@jeff_arnold24) February 8, 2012

- Matt

Chuck Pleiness is reporting that there will be a Griffins/Marlies game at Comerica as part of the festivities. Sweet. May actually get to that one. Maybe.

Just a reminder, 2013 NHL Winter Classic (TOR vs. DET at U of Michigan Big House) will be made official at Thursday news conference(s).

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) February 7, 2012

Apparently, the University of Michigan regents are bringing it down to the wire, though:

The University of Michigan Board of Regents has called a special meeting to discuss renting the Big House to the NHL for the Winter Classic.

— Larry Lage (@LarryLage) February 7, 2012

If U-M regents give their OK as expected Wednesday, that’s likely one of the last hurdles to bringing the NHL’s Winter Classic to Ann Arbor.

— Larry Lage (@LarryLage) February 7, 2012

Looks like Jimmy Howard won’t be seeing hand specialist until tomorrow.

— Ted Kulfan (@tkulfan) February 7, 2012

So I guess we have to wait just a little longer to find out what the damage is.

Overall: Another one for the “generally unimpressive/uninspiring” column. The Wings came out reasonably well, but gradually lost their legs while the Coyotes worked them. They didn’t seem to be on the same page from a passing standpoint and were mostly disjointed in their own end. They gave up an embarrassing shorthanded goal on a play that began with Zetterberg throwing a too-hard pass to nowhere and was compounded by a White/Kronwall collision. That was emblematic of the Wings’ relative cohesiveness in this one.

MacDonald: Didn’t get a win, but looked very sharp and further built up the confidence stock I have him him. He gave up two goals, but his teammates didn’t score more than one so I’m not going to hang this loss on him. I think he earned another start.

Special Teams: They managed one PPG, but they’re still horrible with the man-advantage. Fixing the power play has got to be a priority and it needs to be a priority now.

And I’m not too interested in being positive about the PK success in this one. The Coyotes suck on the PP.

Franzen: Scored, but his giveway led directly to the empty-net goal that sealed it for the Coyotes. Not his best night. Way to live up to the goal scorer stereotype, Johan.

Zetterberg: Continues to mystify. I’m starting to wonder if his wrist issues aren’t flaring up. He’s just not himself.

The Race: The Wings weren’t competing directly against a Central rival last night, with everybody else idle, but they blew a chance at two points and to improve their road record. They’ve got some padding in the lead built up, but they can’t afford many more nights like that.

Travel: They’ve got an easy schedule left from a travel standpoint, so hopefully we’ll see less of this late trip focus loss crap, which seemed to be the story last night. They no doubt saw home shimmering on the horizon and that colored their focus against the Coyotes.

I’m defining #1B as one half of a Luongo/Schneider or Rask/Thomas combo, the kind of guy you could be about as comfortable with in the playoffs as you are with Jimmy. A #2 guy is a traditional backup, the kind of guy who spells your #1 guy during the regular season and who charts faceoffs just about no matter what in the playoffs.

Add Joey MacDonald to the mix and you’ve got three ways forward (four if you count Conklin, but who is?).

I see a #1B guy as out of reasonable reach, 1) because who’s trading a starter at the deadline and 2) the cost is sure to be high for those that are available. And I see a #2 guy as relatively pointless: you deal an asset for a guy who  may only be a marginal improvement over Joey MacDonald and he’s still not a viable tool in the playoffs.

Boston and Vancouver get to have that kind of strength in net because it more or less happened organically. The chips didn’t fall that way for the Wings.  So they may  need to go the traditional one horse route for the playoffs, unless they’re willing to get in on a deal that will equivalently diminish another aspect of the team on the off chance that they might need another goaltender in the playoffs.

I say, assuming his promising outing Saturday night doesn’t turn out to be an anomaly, Joey MacDonald may present the best way forward in terms of setting Jimmy up to succeed in the playoffs. If he can prove to be the kind of guy who can spell Howard down the stretch, the Wings are golden.

What they  need is a guy who can take care of Jimmy’s nights off now. And Mac may be that guy.

Update (12:41 PM): Stuart’s missing the skate with the flu, apparently. He’s supposedly probable for tonight. - Matt

… This is the fourth and final game between the Wings and Coyotes this season. The Wings lead the series 3-0, with 5-2, 3-2 (SO), and 3-2 (SO) wins.

… The Coyotes have played four times since we saw them last month and have split that stretch 2-2, alternating wins and losses. They dropped a game to Tampa Bay, won at home against Ottawa, lost at home to the Ducks and notched a home win against the Sharks on Saturday.

… That win put them at 23-21-8 and 54 points, which is good for 12th in the Conference. They’re only four points back of 8th-place Minnesota, however, and are in the beginning of a playoff push.

… The Coyotes are an anemic 11-10-4 at home, which should be a good sign for a Wings team looking to improve its road record.

… George breaks down the relevant media bits and pieces here.

… The Coyotes are still great at staying out of the box, with just 7.8 PIM/game, which is nearly a full minute better than the Wings’ 2nd-place ranking. That the Coyotes stay out of the box is probably good for our blood pressure tonight: fewer failed power plays.

… The Coyotes are relatively healthy, with just Dave Schlemko listed as out.

… Mike Smith is the presumptive starter. Jim Gintonio points out he rebounded from a bad game to come up with 32 saves in Saturday’s win. So, he’s on a bit of an upswing.

… The Wings are coming off a 5-4 SO loss to the Oilers Saturday night and will finish up a four-game road trip with this one. With the Coyotes looking to make a push and the Wings potentially looking to get home, things could be interesting.

… No lineup news yet, but there is something on the goaltending front: the backup job is open.

… Thanks to the losing effort Saturday, it could be that Mike Commodore and Cory Emmerton will be out in favor of Jakub Kindl and Jan Mursak.

… Babcock was very unimpressed with Ty Conklin’s performance in Edmonton, so it’s possible he’ll forego giving him another chance to step up and instead go for Joey MacDonald. We’ll see.

… The Wings don’t have any Central Division competitors active tonight, but they still need points. They weren’t very good Saturday night and have indicated they’d like to be better tonight. They’ve got the ability to back that up, so here’s hoping they do.

Kronwall’s Hit: Kronwall’s hit. Clean, textbook standing a guy up. Perfect.

Bertuzzi’s 2nd: Bertuzzi’s 301st. Made this guy look like a pylon. Beautiful. Now if someone could just make Andy Sutton look like a retired hockey player…

The Game: In summary, this was a classic Red Wings trap game against a lesser opponent. They came out flat and the Oilers took advantage. They gradually improved over the course of the game and were able to mount a successful comeback in the third period, which was slightly off script.

But they wrote that new script into a blown lead in the final minute. So, they got a point that didn’t seem likely after a 1-3 first period, which is great. But.

Conklin: They may have blown any chance they had of relying on Ty Conklin in Howard’s absence. Conklin appears to be a goalie bereft of all confidence and being hung out to dry by teammates that can’t be bothered to play from the first whistle is not going to help.

Neither is his being yanked one period into his brief tenure as emergency starter. I get that in the microcosm of this one game, pulling the goalie is a way of shaking things up and maybe the best choice. But I wonder if it didn’t just put the icing on the Conklin-is-shot cake. We’ll see.

MacDonald: Meanwhile, Joey MacDonald acquitted himself quite well and looks like a goalie that can handle being hung out to dry by his teammates, because he still has some measure of confidence in himself. He kept the game close and made a number of strong saves that boosted my confidence in him, and from what I saw on Twitter, I was not alone.

It would not be surprising at all to read that Babcock is going with Ty Conklin again tomorrow night, but Joey MacDonald probably should be the guy. At least in a test capacity. Conklin has had time and time again opportunities to show he has what it takes to spell Howard with a competent outing, and he’s so fair failed to do that more than about once. Without that background, I’d say it’d be unfair to leap to conclusions on MacDonald after just one game, but it’s hard not to. Joey just looked better.

The Shootout: I was afraid MacDonald would be a bust in the shootout, because he hasn’t looked good in them while in GR, but he showed up pretty well. The Oilers have some real skill, so I’m not going to hold those goals he did allow against him. I will, however, hold Cleary’s attempt against him. What was that, Danny? The Wings are used to winning these things in just a few rounds, so maybe it’s to be expected that when other guys are put on the spot, it won’t turn out well.

Thug Oilers: What a bunch of children. The Kronwall hit elicited the trademark sign of a dumb team, then Smid runs Zetterberg into the boards like a donkey.

The Power Play: Remains pathetic. The Potter/Smid sequence should have been an automatic goal or two, but they came up completely empty-handed. It’s seriously embarrassing.

I’m going to try to make it a policy to stop complaining about missed calls that would have given the Wings a power play, because it’s not like they would have done anything with it anyway.

And I added a new entry to my new site/Twitter glossary. See “PP”. Right?

Breakaway: Helm had a breakaway that he totally Helmed in the first period. Of course.

Where Confidence Meets Arrogance: I tend to think these trap games that we can so easily predict are a sign of an attitude problem. The Wings know they’re better than just about anybody and they know they have the talent to pull victory from the jaws of defeat on short notice. The old “slow start, frantic finish” model we see. So. Often.

I don’t know if last night is specifically a case of that, but another, related angle on this is the fatigue excuse. I say related because I’m starting to wonder if some of these nights where the storyline can be “they’ve played x games in y nights, they’re out of gas” are really nights where the storyline is “they’ve played x games in y nights, so they’re proactively holding back until late because they know they can.” See the difference?

I love a Wings team that’s confident and has swagger. What I don’t love is a growing suspicion that they’ve crossed over to at least a mild form of arrogance that says they don’t have to take anyone but the most skilled opponents seriously. As Babcock himself has pointed out, teams these days are far closer than they’ve probably ever been before. I guess it would be great if the Wings could play like they believe that more often, even against teams as far back in the standings as the Oilers.

Because that “slow start, frantic finish” model? It doesn’t always work.

The Race: The one point put them at 72, which is 4 over Nashville (regulation winners at home vs. St. Louis),  5 over the Blues and 7 over the flagging Blackhawks. They’ve got a buffer and can afford a game like this in terms of The Race, but they need to get their defensive house in order around the current goaltending situation as soon as possible. Meaning, tomorrow night in Phoenix.

And of course Nik had to answer for it with a moronic reaction from the Oilers. And the Wings did nothing with the ensuing power play. Anyway. More on that tomorrow.

Here’s the relevant part, from page 169:

Hartley said the Avs had “information that Hasek was playing with an illegal stick.” Hasek said the information must have come from a stick he gave Hartley earlier in the season—for his son, a young goaltender. While Hartley denied having one of Hasek’s sticks, Roy said he had one of them. But he wouldn’t say when or why he got it. At the All Star Game, perhaps? (author’s emphasis)

So, it’s not quite the story the rumor tells, but interesting nonetheless. I’d just forgotten that part of the book since I haven’t read it in years. My bad. - Matt

Via @chrissampang. I never heard that before. Anyone know if it’s true?