Game Day Notes: @ Atlanta [OtW]

Nov. 24 :: No One on the Corner Has Swagga Like Us [TPL]

Morning Skate: Is that a…tornado bird? [WIM]

Red Wings vs. Thrashers GP… [SSDD]

GDT – Game #19: Red Wings at Thrashers (7:00) [A2Y]

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Rounding up everyone else’s game previews for tonight’s tilt in Edmonton:

GDT – Game #11: Red Wings at Oilers (9:00) [A2Y]

Red Wings vs. Oilers GP [SSDD]

Game Day Notes: @ Edmonton [OtW]

Preview: Detroit Slides Into Oil-Town [Datsyukian Geek]

Sleeping with the Enemy: Edmonton [NOHS]

Game #11 [Brendan Smithsonian Institute]

Hawaiian Time Morning Skate: THERE’S A WHOLE OCEAN OF OIL UNDER OUR FEET! [WIM]

The Jonathan Ericsson Watch resumed on Wednesday with his triumphant return to the lineup.  This puts the game count at 3.  Him being out with an injury skews the predictions quite a bit, but I’m still interested to see where this goes.

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The major good news is that Franzen is back.

In lieu of a real preview, I’m sending you off to the rest of the blogosphere for better insights:

GDT – Game #6 : Red Wings host Flames (7:30)
Game Day Notes: vs. Calgary
Oct 21 :: Which Is, Like, February in Dog Years
Red Wings vs. Flames GP

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Oh hai.  Coincidentally the minute the hockey season started work picked up and I’ve been absolutely slammed during the day, leaving little to no time for previews and recaps.  Thus, I’m getting this out rather earlier than I’d want.

Lineups:
Nothing official out yet, but I can only assume that they’ll run with the same lines that were iced against Colorado.  Ericsson and Abdelkader are still out, Draper has experienced a set back, and Rafalski’s out 3-4 weeks.  Osgood, with his 28-11-4 career record against Dallas, will be in net.  According to Babcock the plan all along was to alternate Oz and Jimmy for the first few weeks due to the schedule, so this is a good chance for Osgood to prove that he’s  ready and able to shoulder  a moderate load this season.  And step closer to career win 400.

What I’m looking forward to:
The headline-maker for Thursday is Mike Modano’s return to Dallas.  This is, coincidentally, the home opener for the Stars.  Modano scored a goal in his first game in a Wings uniform, but hasn’t recorded a point in either of the following 2 games.  It will be an emotional game for him to return to the franchise for which he played 20 seasons and won the Cup in 1999.  I’m sure he’ll be feeling pressure, and the question will be if he comes up big, or wilts a little under it.

Who I’m looking at to have a good game:
Try as he might, Doug Janik didn’t exactly endear himself to Wings fans on Tuesday.  With Rafalski out for a couple of weeks and not much of a timetable on Ericsson, this is a great opportunity for call ups to make a statement about being able to play with the big boys.  The defense has not been very solid so far, so I’d like to see guys like Janik and Kindl step it up.

Also, going back to the Modano point, I’d love to see him channel the emotion of coming into Dallas wearing a different uniform into a productive night.  His line with Hudler and Cleary was -3 after the Colorado game.

Improvements to be had upon last game:
Defense, defense, defense.  Detroit was tagged with 15 giveaways on Tuesday, plus Colorado’s 6 takeaways.  Against Chicago, they totalled 18 turnovers.  Versus Anaheim, 20.  Matt touched on this in his Avs game recap, but they really need to shore up and get back to displaying complete, team defense.  And as a self-proclaimed puck possession team, they should probably hold onto the puck when they have it.

LGRW.

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Here are the lineups for both teams, from Khan (since there’s nothing on the D pairings, I just swapped in Kindl for Ericsson, but who knows how that’ll actually pan out come game time):

What I’m looking forward to:
The Wings were riled up last night, and out to prove that they can still win.  Can they keep up that momentum?  The Wings will have to sit through the banner raising ceremony prior to the game–and I hope it makes them pissed.  Hopefully they can use that as motivation to go out and play spoiler to the Blackhawks’ big night in front of their home, bandwagon crowd.

I’m also looking forward to seeing Turco the first of 6 times.  Will his record with Dallas against Detroit continue now that he’s with Chicago?  He’s 6-12-5(T) against Detroit for his career.

And the power play needs to start cranking, because going 0-6 against the Ducks last night is really rather embarrassing.  It’s easily overlooked thanks to the 4-0 shutout, but I have a feeling they’ll need all gears turning tonight.

Who I’m looking at to have a good game:
Osgood gets his first start of the season in the second game due to back to backs.  This is a good chance for him to go out and prove himself early on and show the naysayers that he can still handle around 20 games this season, so he needs to be sharp.

Kindl also gets his first look at NHL action earlier than anticipated, and while I’m not certain if he’s playing with Lidstrom or not, it’s also good to see him dig in now.

The Ducks were more or less an easy opponent last night, and while Chicago lost practically half their team to Atlanta, it will still be more of a test.  Media types are saying that Chicago is still the team to beat, which is at least true in the fact that they are, like it or not, the reigning champions in the league.  A dominant win would help quiet Hawks bandwagon, and solidify the fact that the Wings are serious this season.

LGRW.

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This is what we’ve been waiting for all summer.  The drop of the puck in regular season.  Red Wings opening night.

Here are the lines, courtesy of Khan:

Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom
Franzen-Filppula-Bertuzzi
Hudler-Modano-Cleary
Miller-Helm-Eaves

Lidstrom-Ericsson
Stuart-Rafalski
Kronwall-Salei

Howard
Osgood

I can’t find an official lineup for the Ducks anywhere, but looking at their roster the most important thing will be managing their top 6.  A no brainer, really.  The interesting part is their defense.  With Pronger and Niedermayer gone it’s not exactly a strong blueline, so the Wings should be able to take advantage of that fact.  Then they’ll just have to focus on getting pucks past Hiller.

What I’m looking forward to:
Dude.  Red Wings hockey.  That’s enough for me.  But I’m also stupidly excited to see the Circus line back together.  They looked great during the pre-season, and I’m expecting them to make some magic.  I’m also really eager to see Modano’s first real game with the Wings.

Who I’m looking at to have a good game:
Howard and Ericsson.  I think we’re all anxious to see if Howard shows any signs of a sophomore slump, or if he comes out of the gate as strongly as he ended last season.  Ericsson was atrocious in the pre-season, but playing with Lidstrom should help bolster him, and hopefully he can just work on getting back to the basics.

Which reminds me that The Jonathan Ericsson Watch is kicking off tonight at 1 game.  You can, however, still get your over/unders in if you’re so inclined.  Closest guess will win… something.  Something awesome.

LGRW.

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In the spirit that is the pre-season, this is just going to be a mish-mash of notes and thoughts, rather than a fully fleshed out game recap.

• First up, Mountain Time sucks.  It’s great for the games on the West coast, sure, but for 7pm ET starts?  I live 5 minutes away from work, and I had to book it so I could get home for the puck drop, which is something I really hate to miss.  I’m seriously thinking about coming into work half an hour early on 7pm game days during the regular season.
• Tomas Tatar looks awesome.  I can’t wait until this kid’s gotten some more experience in the AHL and gets the call up.  He’s slick but not enigmatically so.  And from what the Olczyk and Pat Foley from CSN were saying, he didn’t even take warmups prior to the game?
• Jimmy only faced 8 shots, but he looked good.  And before we all start drawing comparisons to Osgood, can I just put out a plea to take the defense into account?  Osgood saw 27 shots in two periods thanks to what sounded like a lot of poor defense.  I’m not saying that Oz couldn’t have played better, or that Jimmy wasn’t the better looking of the two in terms of play, but still.  Some perspective, please.  Let’s see how he plays behind the full roster, please.
• The Mursak goal was a nice instance of being in the right place, in front of the net, and ready to tap in the rebound.
• I love watching Lidstrom bomb pucks from the point and seeing them go in, with Holmstrom’s ass in the goalie’s face.
• Until he shot the waived off goal, I felt like Kronwall had whiffed on about 4 shots from the point in a row.  Here’s to hoping that playing with Nick drags him up to the level we’ve been looking for.
• Ericsson looked a little… confused.  Saw him fumble the puck unnecessarily a few times.
• It’s so great to see the Pav-Z-Homer line out there again.  I see the argument for trying to spread out the scoring if necessary, but they’re just so effective together.
• I think everyone needs a refresher on the “goaltender interference” rule when it comes to being in the crease.  From the way the refs have called it the past few seasons, to even listening to the Chicago pxp guys, you’d honestly think that simply being in the crease was cause to waive off a goal.  I distinctly recall hearing Versus always harping on about Holmstrom’s skates being on the edge of the blue paint as if that were the deciding factor for goalie interference.

For tonight’s game, Khan has the lineup:

Jordan Owens-Valtteri Filppula-Todd Bertuzzi
Drew Miller-Justin Abdelkader-Francis Pare
Jamie Tardif-Cory Emmerton-Jan Mursak
Tomas Tatar-Joakim Andersson-Aaron Downey

Brad Stuart-Jonathan Ericsson
Doug Janik-Brendan Smith
Jakub Kindl-Logan Pyett

Chris Osgood
Thomas McCollum

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Let’s Go Red Wings.

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You don’t need to make history tonight, Detroit.  One game, one chapter at a time, you just have to start writing it, not complete the book.

Let’s Go Red Wings.

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I believe.

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