Detroit Red Wings-Vancouver Canucks: A Myriad of Injuries

(Photo by Nick Didlick/Getty Images)

By Louis “King of Roncesvalles” Pisano

Detroit’s loss of Johan Franzen and the offseason departures of Marian Hossa and Jiri Hudler has left Detroit in the middle of the pack at 17th overall in the goal scoring department where they have been perennial top of league giants.  

Vancouver is similarly rowing the same boat through the weeds, having lost Pavol Demitra, Daniel Sedin, Sami Salo, and most recently Kyle Wellwood to injury, and find themselves sitting one place below Detroit at 18th in league goal-scoring.

The Canucks have scored 11 goals over their last five games with one of those being an empty netter in a game against Toronto Saturday night in which they were out worked and out played. That somewhat equates to an average of two goals a game, luckily Roberto Luongo seems to be rounding into his regular form and Vancouver has won four of its last five due to his play.

Conversely, Detroit has lost four of its last five and is averaging 2.6 goals per game over that stretch, with losses to Phoenix, Buffalo and Colorado twice while beating LA, 5-2. Both goalies, Chris Osgood and Jimmy Howard have an above three goal-against-average and a below .900 save percentage. This is the third game of a five game western road swing for the troubled Red Wings who still have to face the speedy Oilers and red hot Flames.

The lack of scoring for both these teams will lead to a defensive style of hockey game when they meet tonight at GM Place in Vancouver and the edge in net will be a decisive factor for the Canucks in this low scoring affair.

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