Red Wings Face Off At Home Against Avalanche

/line-combinations.html" onclick="javascript:urchinTracker ('/outbound/article/redwingscorner.blogspot.com');">According to Bruce MacLeod, Holmstrom skated with Valtteri Filppula and Pavel Datsyuk this morning and Kirk Maltby was on Kris Draper’s wing with Dallas Drake. Mikael Samuelsson has been bumped down to the fourth line with Tomas Kopecky and Johan Franzen, though both he and Franzen should see some power play time to make up for it. Expect the Wings to return to their rotation of Drake, Ellis, Downey, and Kopecky, now that the team is healthy.

The Wings’ top three point-producers, Nicklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, and Henrik Zetterberg, were named Western Conference All-Star starters today. Zetterberg leads the team with 26 goals and 54 points. Datsyuk and Lidstrom both have 36 assists, but have put up 52 and 40 total points, respectively.

As per the Wings’ goalie rotation policy, Dominik Hasek will start tonight.

For more of the Wings’ perspective, see Snapshots, Abel to Yzerman, HockeyTownTodd, Behind the Jersey, No Pun Intended, Red Wings Nation, yzerman is god, Detroit Hockey, LetsGoWings, and Winging It In Motown.

The Wings have been playing strong hockey lately and there’s little reason to think they’ll stop tonight. The Avs are a bit weaker than they were at the last meeting and they were handled fairly easy then.

In the past, that would have me concerned, as the Wings have often played below their potential in such situations, but that hasn’t been much of a problem this season. The main exceptions were their games against Chicago and they overcame that little problem on Sunday. With Maltby and Holmstrom returning to the lineup, the Wings are only getting stronger and therefore should be in good shape tonight.

One of the storylines tonight will be Chris Chelios’ becoming the second-oldest player in NHL history as he is now one day older than Moe Roberts. He’s got a while to go, however, before he’ll close in on Gordie Howe’s record of 52 years, 6 days. For more on Chelios, see the NHL's press release.

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