Tonight's Lineup vs Coyotes
"You got to play good without the puck if you're going to be successful. Then you have the puck all the time and you have lots of offense. We've been able to do that at home and committed to doing that. We haven't been on the road." --Mike BabcockThat quote comes to us via Khan(!)...I hope that if Khan(!) even knows about this site, he doesn't hate us.
SOPA, PIPA, and Khan(!) aside...the Wings have a job to do tonight. We're still below .500 on the road (12-13-0). As someone mentioned earlier...Detroit either wins or loses in regulation...we have only one "loser" point all season as opposed to St. Louis and Chicago who have a half-dozen a piece.
The Wings have only surrendered six goals in the past four games after giving up five on the Island that is Long back on January 10th.
Make the jump to see who's in the lineup to keep up the staunch D...
48 and 4 are back in the lineup, 29 39 and 22 are out...Franzen-Datsyuk-Bertuzzi
Filppula-Zetterberg-Hudler
Miller-Helm-Cleary
Emmerton-Abdelkader-Holmstrom
Lidstrom-White
Kronwall-Stuart
Ericsson-Kindl
Howard (starting)
Conklin
I've said it before...but I have been really impressed with the improving compete level of one Justin Abdelkader. His 12 points this season so far is only seven off from his career high last year. But more importantly than that, he is looking more and more confident with the puck. Abby Road has always had a little snarl to his game, but his puck handling is getting better and he is turning into a most useful mammal back on that fourth line.
Having vets like Cleary and Holmstrom on those bottom two lines means that we have scoring threats up and down this lineup...and I dig it.
6 comments
@nicgrayson Keeping that stick down is hard when you have your head up, as Abby generally does. I worry less about it then the mouth breathing roughing, crosschecking, boarding, tripping, etc penalties. Better an incidental penalty then some intentional crap, good on Abby he has kept his to a minimum this year.
That said, Lidstrom got away with a nice Joe Louis Special and more then a hook or three already this year. I should do a mean Hearted spread come year end on TPH.
Abby does seem especially confident skating with the puck through the neutral zone, going around defenders, etc.
Jason Williams isn't on the team anymore...let's see if you see the error ;)
Go, Red Wings, Go!
