Datsyuk vs Ovechkin : Russian the Offence

Ovechkin visits Hockeytown, Red Wings are ready to get the winning streak down

With Alexander Ovechkin and his high-flying offense, averaging 3 goals a game, knock down the Wings? Will a high-powered power-play from the Capitals, clicking at 25.6%, over-power the 7^th leading penalty kill from the Red Wings? Will we see the Braden Holtby that let in 3 goals on 14 shots against Calgary or the one that played amazing in the last couple of games? Will Kyle Quincey finally be a + player in a game, a feat he’s only done twice this year?

These questions and many more will be answered tonight at the Joe-Louis Arena at 7:30 ET.

The Capitols are 6-3-1 in their last ten games, while the Red Wings are 3-2-5. The starting goaltenders are Holtby for the Capitals and Howard for the Red Wings.

Projected Lineup for the Washington Capitals:

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
Martin Erat	Nicklas Backstrom	Alex Ovechkin
Brooks Laich	Marcus Johansson	Troy Brouwer
Jason Chimera	Mikael Grabovski	Joel Ward
Aaron Volpatti	Michael Latta	Tom Wilson

Left Defenseman	Right Defenseman
Nate Schmidt	Mike Green
Karl Alzner	John Carlson
Alexander Urbom	Steve Oleksy

Projected Lineup for the Detroit Red Wings:

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
Henrik Zetterberg	Pavel Datsyuk	Todd Bertuzzi
Tomas Tatar	Johan Franzen	Daniel Alfredsson
Daniel Cleary	Joakim Andersson	Justin Abdelkader
Drew Miller	Darren Helm	Mikael Samuelsson

Left Defenseman	Right Defenseman
Niklas Kronwall	Jonathan Ericsson
Kyle Quincey	Danny DeKeyser
Brian Lashoff	Jakub Kindl

Game notes – Red Wings

• ·     Patrick Eaves cleared waivers today and has been sent to Grand Rapids;
•     Tomas Tatar returns to the line-up, so does Jonathan Ericsson after being on the LTIR;
• ·  Jimmy Howard will try to win his sixth game: he is 5-5-5 after 15 games with 2.67 GAA and a .910 SV%.

Game notes – Capitals

• ·        The Capitals have recalled defenseman Tyson Strachan from Hershey. If he playes, he’ll be the 10^th defenseman to do so for Washington this year.
• ·         Jason Chimera has 2 assists in 3 games after being signed to a two-year contract extension on November 8^th.
• ·         Alexander Ovechkin has 6 points in his last 5 games.