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.

Where will Wings Find Inspiration?

Detroit will be hosting Washington tomorrow in an attempt to avoid losing their 7th consecutive home game, Patrick Eaves has gone on waivers, and Tomas Tatar is getting sat for Dan Cleary.

What the hell kinda bizarro world did I wake up to today?

The Red Wings are having a hard old time in many regards recently.  Guys outside the top line aren't scoring, the defense is incredibly suspect, and on top of all that, the cap crunch is killing Detroit's options for who to plug into the lineup to try and stir up some chemistry.

I'll admit it's hard as a loyal fan of a team to watch that team struggle, but what makes this particular situation harder to swallow is the fact that, by all rights, this team is better than what they've shown so far this season.  Weiss has been a complete bust, with a pitiful 3 points in 17 games.  This was the guy meant to replace Valtteri Filppula, and realistically WOULD have.  Daniel Alfredsson was a surprise acquisition this offseason and has been what I would deem decent. No one expected the Alfie from 10 years ago, the fanbase knows he's getting up in age, but  at least he's putting points up with 3 goals and 11 assists.

When you look at the Red Wings' depth chart, then look at their current standings and point production, it simply doesn't add up.  Something needs to change.

This is mostly a venting session for me.  I also need to apologize to the loyal followers of The Geek for what has been a lackluster start to the season for us here, too.  I promise you will see this rectified and just want to let you all know that I and the other writers here at TDG appreciate you all and look forward to sharing our passion for Red Wings hockey with all of you.

The old saying does state that "It's gotta get worse before it gets better".  Things will turn themselves around.

Wings Waddle out of Winnipeg after 4-2 Loss

Let the record show that I am about as uninspired to write this post as the Wings were to play hockey tonight.  For anyone who doesn't know, that's pretty damned uninspired.

Detroit came into Winnipeg looking to close out their Western Canada roadtrip with a 4-game sweep.  Obviously they only brought enough fuel for 3 games, because the Jets were allowed to do whatever they pleased for almost the full 60 minutes.  Jimmy Howard had to make an embarrassing 43 saves just to keep his team in the game, which should have earned him one of tonight's 3 stars, as he was effectively thrown to the wolves by his teammates.

Defense was non-existent, so much so that the good things that happened offensively for the Wings were greatly overshadowed.  Constant turnovers, breakaway chances, and odd-man rushes against were what fueled the Jets offensive this evening, and they made every attempt to cash in all of them.  The Red Wings were too busy playing against their own fatigue and sloppiness to muster much resistance.

Henrik Zetterberg managed to open the Detroit scoring, netting his 8th goal of the season, while young defender Danny DeKeyser got his 1st NHL career goal on a bullet from the point while short-handed.  Detroit won an offensive zone faceoff while down a man, and when the puck got back to Kaiser, he drilled it past Jets goalie Al Montoya.

Those were pretty much the only Red Wings highlights, besides a couple above-average chance that were kept out of the net and the AMAZING show Howard put on to try and keep Detroit alive.  Thankfully the Wings now take the next 2 days off and should come back fresh and ready to start a new winning streak as they play host to the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

Till then, see you next time right here at TDG!

Can Wings Maintain Consistency Against Flames?

The Wings have finally snapped what amounted to a 4-game winless streak by handing a 2-1 defeat to the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night.  They did so by finally getting back to playing their system: strong, relentless pressure to seize and control the puck throughout the game, limiting chances against and maximizing chances for.  Now that they've done so, the question is whether or not they will maintain that style of play this evening as the Red Wings invade Calgary for a date with the Flames.

Detroit's match against Calgary is another instance where the result should be clear. On paper, it is: Calgary is hovering near the bottom of their division, while a win tonight would put the Wings just 2 points back of East-leading Toronto (Excuse me a moment, I need to recover from having just wrote that).  Without that requisite work ethic and signature style of play running at full speed though, the task will be made all the more difficult.  Calgary also now has 2 players who know the Red Wings' system very well in goalie Joey MacDonald and forward Jiri Hudler.  I've always noticed a trend of teams having our number somewhat after acquiring our old faces (San Jose over the last few years, anyone...?)

As long as Detroit sticks to the plan Mike Babcock has laid out for this team and commit 100% for a full 60 minutes, the chances of victory are high, and that's good because the Wings cannot afford to slip too far from the top early in a very new and unfamiliar setting in the Eastern Conference.

Enjoy the game, Wingnuts!