Red Wings-Coyotes: Detroit GameDay

The Wings should be in good shape tonight, with Henrik Zetterberg (back injury) slated to return after missing two games.  Dallas Drake (knee injury) is also scheduled to dress for the first time in five.  Aaron Downey and Matt Ellis will both be healthy scratches.

Apparently Dan Cleary won't miss any more time after sustaining a nasty black eye in a fight with Chris Pronger in the first period against the Ducks on Wednesday.  The swelling forced him to miss the game, but it has since gone down.

Bruce MaCleod provided the following lines from practice yesterday:

Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom
Samuelsson-Franzen-Cleary
Hudler-Filppula-Kopecky
Drake-Draper-Maltby

I suspect things will look somewhat different tonight:

Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom
Samuelsson-Filppula-Cleary
Franzen-Draper-Maltby
Drake-Kopecky-Hudler

Projected pairings:

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Lilja
Lebda-Chelios

As usual, expect some mixing as the game goes on.

Chris Osgood is scheduled to start.  That's a good move by Babcock, who is no doubt looking to restore his goaltender's confidence after the shellacking he suffered in the All Star Game on Sunday.

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.

Tonight's a key game for the Wings as they look to pick up where they left off before the Break.  They are well-rested and should be ready to face a hot Phoenix team in what could be a preview of the first round of the playoffs.

The Coyotes are no longer pushovers and should make things interesting, though they won't be all that fresh, having played in Columbus last night.  If the Wings bring their A game, Phoenix will be hard-pressed to pull out another road win.

The puck drops at 7:30 PM EST.

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