The big news here is Niklas Kronwall’s glorious return to the blue line.  With that, Meech is the odd man out, and will return to his familiar spot in the press box.  I am stoked for this.  It means we finally have 2 solid defensive pairings, and now Brad Stuart isn’t going to have to scramble around trying to cover for his partner.  Kronwall should also help out the power play, as he had been really heating up before he got hurt.

The goalies will be Howard vs. Bryzgaloz.  As the first game in a back to back, with Wednesday’s game against Minnesota, will Osgood get an opportunity?  And if he does, will he keep his mouth shut?  I’m getting ahead of myself…

Wings are sitting back in the playoffs at 8, but only because they’ve played one fewer game than Calgary.  If they lose, they’re back to 9 because Calgary (somehow) has more wins.  Win, they’re still in 8th, but have further solidified their position.

I want to see a team that plays all 60 minutes.  They know they need the points, but I want them to show me by dismantling the Coyotes.  The Yotes aren’t a high scoring team–they’ve got 139.  Sadly, the Wings are behind them in this regard also, with 131 on the season.

Who I’m looking at to have a good game: Nik is the obvious choice here.  I miss seeing him just blast someone on open ice.  And I think beyond that, just his return to the lineup will be a confidence booster for a team that seems to need it.

Also, in case you are interested, NHL.com is offering a free preview of GameCenter Live tonight.  There are 7 games on tap, though Phoenix/Wings is on Versus.  I can vouch for the service that when it works, it’s awesome.  When it sucks, it really sucks.  It actually makes me glad that the Wings game is on TV because I won’t have to worry about bandwidth overload.

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