Detroit Red Wings GameDay: vs. Vancouver

Tonight is the third of four meetings between these two Western Conference teams. The Wings lead the series 2-0 with 3-2 wins October 24th and October 28th. The Canucks will play the host in the fourth and final game, on February 23rd.

The puck drops at 7:30 ET. 

Vancouver (25-17-4) is 3-3-0 thus far in 2008, with wins over the Rangers and Islanders starting out the year.

They followed that with a pair of losses, beginning with a 3-1 decision in San Jose on the 10th and continuing the next night at home with the Coyotes winning 4-3. On Sunday, they went to a shootout in St. Louis and pulled out a 4-3 win. They then lost to the Blue Jackets 3-2 on Tuesday. They have not won in regulation since January 3rd at Madison Square Gardens.

Tonight’s game is their last stop in a tour of three Central Division cities.

Henrik Sedin leads the Canucks in points with 48, but his brother Daniel leads the team in goals with 22. Three other Canucks have 10 or more goals: Markus Naslund (15), Ryan Kesler (12), and Tyler Pyatt (11).

Vancouver will be without Kevin Bieksa (cut calf) and Brendan Morrison (wrist) and may be without Mattias Ohlund (neck).

Roberto Luongo will get the start for the Canucks. Luongo has posted 6 shutouts, a 2.04 GAA and a .927 save-percentage through 38 games this season.

For the Canucks’ side of things, see Canucks and Beyond,  Canucks Fangirl, The Canucks Genome Project Blog, Canucks Hockey Blog, Orland Kurtenblog, Stick in Rink,  Waiting for Stanley, and Yet Another Canucks Blog.

The Wings are 4-2-1 in 2008, with losses coming in each of their last three games. The skid began with a 6-5 shootout loss to Minnesota a week ago and continued with a 3-2 decision in Ottawa on Saturday. They failed to pull out a win on Tuesday, falling instead to Atlanta, 5-1. They will be looking to avoid going into a three-game road trip on a losing streak.

The team’s offensive leaders, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, have combined for just one goal over the three-game skid, though they have put together six points.

It looks like Dallas Drake (swollen knee) will be out for the second game. Aaron Downey should be in the lineup again as a result.

Bruce MacLeod’s projected lines are as follows:

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Filppula-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Franzen-Zetterberg-Samuelsson
Cleary-Drpaer-Maltby
Hudler-Kopecky-Downey

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He also provides projected defensive pairings:

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Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Lilja
Lebda-Chelios

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Hopefully Babcock will stick with those. I noticed that he had Lidstrom paired with Kronwall and Rafalski paired with Lilja against Atlanta, for the first and second periods. I stopped keeping track after that.

Needless to say, it didn’t go all that well.

Dominik Hasek will get the start tonight. He faced Atlanta on Tuesday after Chris Osgood was pulled and made seven saves.

For more of the Wings’ perspective, stop by 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. Todd has his usual numbers posted at HTT and OklahomaWingNut has an excellent GDT posted at Kukla’s Korner Forums.

This is a big game for the Wings. They could really use a win here as they prepare to go fly to California for a three-game trip that includes back-to-back contests in LA and Anaheim next week. The Canucks have not had an easy transition to the new year and should be vulnerable to a Red Wings team looking to get back on its feet.

The most encouraging thing for the Wings is the claim by the Vancouver Province that Roberto Luongo is off his game, as it has been three hot goalies that have caused the Wings fits during this skid.

The fact that the Canucks’ offense isn’t humming along should be a good sign as well, as the Wings’ defense has struggled during the loss streak as well.

Still, those things cannot be taken for granted and you can bet the Wings know it. The question is whether they’ll be able to put that knowledge into action and bring the level of play that’s been missing since their too-close 1-0 win over Colorado last week.

The noticeable drop in their game began against a Northwest Division team, deepened against another, and will hopefully end tonight against a third.