A preview of the Red Wings.
Record: 34-11-7, 75 points. Detroit is in first place in the Central Division and second place in the Western Conference.
Leading Scorer: Pavel Datsyuk, 63 points (20 goals, 53 assists).
Last Game: 8-3 rout at home of the Oilers, yesterday. Pavel Datsyuk, Marian Hossa and Brian Rafalski each had a goal and an assist. Ty Conklin made 23 saves in the win.
Last Game against the Penguins: 7-6 overtime loss at home, Nov. 11. Jordan Staal had a hat trick and an assist on Ruslan Fedotenko's goal in overtime.
Red Wings Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Let's go with Jiri Hudler. He had a goal and two assists in the Nov. 11th meeting.
Ex-Penguins on the Red Wings: Marian Hossa (right), RW; Mikael Samuelsson, RW; Ty Conklin, G.
Ex-Red Wings on the Penguins: None.
Useless Red WIngs Trivia: The Pittsburgh Hornets of the AHL served as the Red Wings' primary minor league affiliate from 1927 until 1945 and from 1961 until 1967. The Hornets produced six players who eventually suited up for the Red Wings and ended up in the Hockey Hall of Fame. They are: Sid Abel, Marty Barry, Andy Bathgate, Leo Boivin, Doug Harvey and Jack Stewart.
Best Red Wings YouTube Video We Could Find: We used this back on Nov. 11, but the opening montage from the CBC broadcast of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final is one of our favorite things on YouTube:
(The spotlight at the 1:07 mark is awesome.)
Notes:
-Marc-Andre Fleury (18-13-3, 2.80 GAA, .911 SV%) and Shooter Tutor Chris Osgood (17-4-6, 3.29 GAA, .880 SV%) are expected to start in net.
-Did you know the Penguins played the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup final last season?
-Did you know Marian Hossa used to be a Penguin?
-Michel Therrien doesn't care who his team is playing today. He just wants two points.
-Detroit forward Johan Franzen is dealing with a dinged up hand. The injury forced him out of yesterday's game. No word on his status for today.
-Red Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom is out 3-to-5 weeks with a sports hernia.
-Detroit forward Tomas Kopecky, the man credited with luring Marian Hossa to Detroit, did not play yesterday due to a hip pointer. Forward Darren McCarty and defenseman Brad Stuart are both on injured reserve.
-Did you know Marian Hossa used to be a Penguin?
-Detroit ripped it up in the first period yesterday.
-Niklas Kronwall and Nicklas Lidstrom have formed a pretty nice duo on the blueline.
-Everybody hates Chris Osgood.
-Remember when we all loved this song?
-You might not like the guy, but you have to admit this Slovakian commercial with Hossa and Vancouver's Pavol Demitra is pretty good:
-Today's an NBC game so you'll need something to stab your ears out when Pierre McGuire's snotty voice is blithering on about how Mike Milbury is a meathead.
-Our live blog begins at approximately, 11:30 a.m. Please tune in.
Posted
Feb 08 2009, 12:03 AM
by
Seth Rorabaugh