My Sabre is Dull
Updated 3:12 PM - Lineups now included. Detroit is back on the road facing off against a struggling Sabres team that has gone 1-3-1 in their last five. The Wings will be looking to make it six in a row by sticking it to a familiar face in Ville Leino, how's that deal working out? Hudler doesn't look too bad now does he?
Stats and Hulktuzzi's after the jump, plus lineups.
Fabian Brunnstrom is still on the roster, but Chris Conner was called up to fill in on the 3rd line. I hope Buckets can keep up because Conner and Helm should make for an exciting pair. Conner lacks size, he is listed at 5'8" and has been written off by many as having little chance of a sustained NHL career. What he does do well is work hard and provide energy, something Wings management and fans love. Give this guy a little confidence and a team known for getting the best out of players his type and we may be seeing the birth of something special.
- Detroit is 48-52-13-1 all-time vs Buffalo
- Detroit is 13-34-8-0 all-time at Buffalo
- Detroit is 6-1-1 in their last 8 games vs Buffalo
- The fastest 4 goals in Detroit franchise history were scored on 12/28/99 at Buffalo (Larionov, Lidstrom, Ward, Verbeek - 1:55 apart)
- Detroit is 60-3-4 the last 67 times they've scored 4+ goals in a game
- Mike Babcock is currently tied with Emile Francis for 27th place in NHL history with 388 career coaching wins (26 - Fred Shero, 390)
- Nick Kronwall made his NHL debut at Buffalo on 12/10/03
- Nick Kronwall has blocked 15 shots in his last 3 games played
- Ian White (w/ TOR) scored first career NHL goal vs Buffalo on 4/1/06 (opposing goalie: Ryan Miller)
- Pavel Datsyuk has registered 5G-6A-11P in his last 7 games played
- Pavel Datsyuk has tallied 10G-11A-21P in his last 15 games played vs Eastern Conference opponents
- Pavel Datsyuk has won 56 of his last 89 face-off-attempts (63%)
- Henrik Zetteberg has tallied 7G-18A-25P in his last 22 games vs Eastern Conference opponents
- Henrik Zetterberg has recorded 2G-4A-6P in his last 5 games played
- Henrik Zetterberg is 2 assists behind Pelle Eklund for 20th place in NHL history amongst Swedes (335)
- Tomas Holmstrom's next PPG will tie him with Sergei Fedorov for 4th place in Detroit team history (117)
- Nick Lidstrom posted his 499th and 500th career points (two assists) on 10/21/00 vs Buffalo
- Nick Lidstrom's next goal will tie him with Guy Carbonneau, Brian Mullen and Donald Audette for 237th place in NHL history (260)
- Nick Lidstrom's next point will tie him with Joe Nieuwendyk and Mike Bossy for 51st place in NHL history (1126)
- Johan Franzen has tallied 6G-10A-16P in his last 12 games played
- Johan Franzen has registered 9G-5A-14P in his last 14 games vs Northeast Division teams
- Todd Bertuzzi has recorded 12G-18A-30P in his last 29 games vs Northeast Division teams
- Jiri Hudler's first career NHL goal came at Buffalo on 12/10/03 (opposing goalie: Ryan Miller)
- Jimmy Howard is 3-0-0 (2.27 GAA, .929 SV%) in 3 starts vs Eastern Conference opponents this season
- Valtteri Filppula has recorded 3G-3A-6P in 5 Friday games this season
- Valtteri Filppula has tallied 4G-2A-6P in his last 4 games played
Chris Update: Here's tonight's lineups from Mlive:
Franzen-Datsyuk-Bertuzzi
Filppula-Zetterberg-Hudler
Cleary-Helm-Conner
Miller-Abdelkader-Holmstrom
Emmerton (scratched)
Lidstrom-White
Kronwall-Ericsson
Kindl-Stuart
Commodore (scratched)
Howard
Conklin
LGRW.
I know I am getting my hopes up, but I just cant wait to see Conner and Helm out there together
@Jordan_Reis Me too! Among his other skills, I love watching Helm run the PK table, so having Conner out there matching him on speed is going to be awesome.
lol what's with the ripping on leino? i always liked him. it's not his fault teams had no problem over paying him.
Leino was our consolation prize for losing out on the Brunnstrom sweepstakes. Kinda looks like both may be duds. Ville didn't listen to Babs and the year he spent in GR all he did was complain. The best part is we dumped him for a bag of pucks to clear a roster spot for Franzen to return, but kept onto Jason Williams @marti783
@Jordan_Reis i have a conspiracy theory on Leino. It may be crazy but we're all allowed to belive in one conspiracy theory in our life....I think Ville purposely dogged it when they brought him up full time so he would get traded to spite the Wings. I think he was pissed when he got sent down the year before. The Wings always say you have to play your way on to the team and I think he did. They sent him down and he was like, screw these guys.
@marti783 Ripping on the guy who won't buy into any coach's system, only wanting to play his way, which usually avoids going anywhere except the perimeter, and when the going gets tough, instead of working harder, he just rather give up and say "Oh well I tried..."
