Todd Bertuzzi and Pavel Datsyuk will both be in the line-up tonight.  Datsyuk has apparently been fighting the flu and Bertuzzi suffered a charlie horse during Sunday's slug fest with hte Chickenhawks.

Bertuzzi talked to the Detroit News today.  When he was told that the Red Wings haven't won three games in a row in two months, he replied with the following:

"Is that right?  That would be a pretty big accomplishment then, eh?"

I would imagine that was accompanied by a toothless grin, but I can't say for sure.  Bertuzzi continued...

"We are starting to figure things out.  We're starting to understand what it takes to  win with this group. I am looking forward to tonight. It's going to be fun."

Well, here's to hoping it's going to be fun for the fans as well.  I think Bertuzzi still has an itch for the Flames and I hope he goes ahead and scratches it tonight.  You may remember the off-season talkings whereby the Flames' faithful treated Bertuzzi's departure like he was a disease.

He's currently 4th on the Red Wings in points.  He's played in all 65 games and has accumulated 15 goals and 22 assists for 37 points.  He may not be producing in goal department as of late, but the guy has been playing pretty damn good hockey.  There's still times I scream at the TV for him to shoot...but overall I'm very happy with what we've gotten out of Bertuzzi this season.

Now don't make me look like a fool tonight, Todd.  Show those Flames what you can do.

It's on days such as these, the third sunny 50+ degree (Fahrenheit) day in Michigan, where I don't mind talking about the city of Miami in the sunny state of Florida.  The Miami Herald provides us with their look at the biggest game of the season (to date) for Detroit...

The Calgary Flames and Detroit Red Wings will both be aiming for a third straight victory when they meet in the Motor City tonight for a battle between playoff hopefuls at Joe Louis Arena.

In addition to winning two straight, the Red Wings have taken three of four since the Olympic break and have won four of five overall. Calgary lost its first game after the break, but has since strung together consecutive wins.

Alright, so both teams have been playing well since the mad dash to finish got underway.

The Flames and Red Wings have split a pair of meetings this year with each team winning on the road. Detroit has won six of the last 10 matchups overall, while Calgary has dropped six of nine in Motown. The teams will complete the season series in Calgary on March 15.

And won't we be happy when the final trip to the left coast is over with.  You have to wonder what the point differential will be when these two meet again a week from today.

The Red Wings are 17-9-5 as the host this year and are kicking off a three- game homestand tonight.

The Flames are 16-9-6 as the guest this year, but have lost six of their last eight road games.

Nearly identical records heading into this match up.  The Wings need to be better at home.

And in the "oh goody" category...

Calgary's workhorse goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff is expected to resume his starting role tonight.

Chris, myself, and The Future Mrs. Nightmare on Helm Street all attended the last game that was played between these two at the Joe.  And what a crap-tastic game that turned out to be.  Don't bother looking it up, just take my word for it.

Both teams need this win bad, but who wants it more?

Everybody has been talking about the most recent head shot that Pittsburgh Penguin Matt Cooke laid on Boston Bruin Marc Savard.  Well, some of your Wings chimed in on it too.

From the Slam! Sports Blog...

"I thought it was dirty. If he throws his shoulder into his body, it's a hit.  But he's in a vulnerable position, and (Cooke) goes at him. I don't think he elbowed him, but he went towards his head area when he easily could have gone to the body and taken him out of the play."--Jason Williams

You remember, J-Willz got clobbered by Raffi Torres back during his first stint as a Red Wing.  Many say that Williams was never the same after getting his eggs scrambled.

Here's what your head coach had to say:

"Crosby said it best.  So I'm just going to quote him. 'We've been talking about it and talking about it -- it's time we made a decision about it instead of just talking about it. Is that a legal hit or an illegal hit?  These players all have got families and wives at home, and all want to be safe on the ice. I think it's important we look after one another, and the way to look after one another is simply have the fine and suspension long enough that they don't do it."--Mike Babcock

Ah...using the NHL's own golden boy to try and force their hand...crafty, Mike.  Very crafty.

If Cooke is suspended for his most recent head shot, it will be the third time in a little over a year.

As per Khan(!) yesterday, the only lineup change from Sunday's victory over Chicago will be Johnny "Big Rig" Ericsson being inserted in place of Brett "Little Rig" Lebda.  Thus, here is your lineup...

Franzen-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Cleary-Zetterberg-Williams
Miller-Filppula-Bertuzzi
Draper-Helm-Eaves

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Ericsson-Lilja

Howard (starting)
Osgood

Lebda overskating the puck in the first period resulted in Filppula passing the puck right to Andrew Ladd which resulted in a goal.  So he's out.  I would imagine that the rotation should be "screw up, and you're out."  But we'll see about that.

From stltoday.com...

The Red Wings are off to the races.

Any article from St. Louis that starts off that way should already have alarm bells ringing.  But of course, there's more...

They have blown past Calgary into the No. 8 slot in the Western Conference playoffs.

They won’t stop there. Detroit has won four of its last five games, pushing its point total to 74 -– five more than the 11th-place Blues

The writer, Jeff Gordon (not the one that NASCAR fans throw beer cans at), then goes even further about the Red Wings "run" and even dives into the pool of prognostication...

They will fly past Nashville next, then take aim at Colorado and Los Angeles on the conference pecking order. Before the season ends, that team will secure a decent playoff seed and the opportunity to take another run at the Stanley Cup.

Whoa.  17 games left in the season and apparently Detroit is going to not only get by Nashville in the standings, but catch the kids from Denver and Los Angeles as well.  Are you serious, bro?  Either this guy is a transplant from Michigan and has the utmost confidence in the Detroit Red Wings (secretly his favorite team, even though he covers the St. Louis Blues)...

 OR

...this is a simple jinx attempt to run the "karma train" see Bingo Bango today off of its tracks.  It's like talking about a shut out late in the game when the opposing goalie is pitching a goose egg.

Nice try, Jeff.

Well luckily, we haven't had to do any more of these lately, except for Kirk...poor Kirk.  But I know that NOHS reader, Lauren H gets all hot and bothered when she doesn't know what's going on with her Red Wings every second of every day, so I do my part to try and keep her under control...

Look at that...even CBS Sports doesn't recognize Kirk Maltby as an injured Red Wing.  I think this officially absolves me from when I forgot to include him back before the Colorado game.  Take that, Petrella!

...poor Kirk.

Via Khan(!) this morning...

“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, that sense of urgency has to stay with us.  If we win, we leapfrog an opponent and kind of keep Calgary a little bit behind us."--Kris Draper

Well, to clarify: in order to leapfrog Nashville this evening, the Red Wings have to beat Calgary AND Nashville has to lose in regulation to the Atlanta Thrashers tonight.  The point is that Detroit needs to focus on winning and then let the chips fall where they may.

Calgary has made a ton of lineup changes over the course of the season.  Niklas Hagman, Matt Stajan and Jamal Mayers, and Ian White all came over from Toronto.  They acquired Christopher Higgins and Ales Kotalik from the New York Rangers. They also picked up defensemen Steve Staios Edmonton.  They shipped out Olli Joikenen and Dion Phaneuf.

“They’re in exactly the same boat as we are, they’re battling for their playoff life.  They got solid goaltending. They’ve changed their team around quite a bit. In saying that, they got real good depth up front."--Mike Babcock

Detroit can once again give themselves some breathing room with a regulation win tonight. A win tonight would mark 4 out of the first group of 5 games of this play-off push.  Remember, Micky said that they need to win at least 3 out of every 5.  Well, they've accomplished that already, but 3 out of 5 is the bare minimum to stay alive.  A string of 4-5 wins in a row could see us really put some teams in the mirror.  And since we can't seem to count on ANY Eastern Conference teams to help us out (thank you, Washington), we're just going to have to take care of business ourselves.

Per Khan(!)...

Detroit Red Wings forwards Todd Bertuzzi and Pavel Datsyuk didn't practice Monday, but coach Mike Babcock said both will be in the lineup for Tuesday's game against Calgary (7 p.m., FSN).

You may have noticed Datsyuk's illness on the ice, because he's been flat out sick!

**cough cough**

Sorry about that.  But I'm glad to hear that Bertuzzi's leg is okay after watching that awkward collision with Ben Eager.  Datsyuk returned to action after taking that shot off of the foot, but then again, Franzen finished the game against Chicago when he injured his knee, so it's good to get some confirmation on his health.

On other adjustment to the line-up...Lebda out, Ericsson back in.  Apparently, this was a planned move:

“We’re going to keep rotating those guys.  I don’t know if it’s game in, game out, or two in, two out."--Mike Babcock

Does that mean that Meech is going to be rotated in?

Hey gang.

Just a friendly reminder that you now only have Ted Lindsay's number of days to submit an entry for the "I See 43" Contest.  We currently have over 20 submissions and are looking for more before the contest ends next Monday.

Who sees 43?

So apparently Ryan Lambert of Puckdaddyhates Cristobal Huet more than the Japanese hate dolphins and whales.

Lambert basically blames Huet for chasing away the fringe hockey fans in the US who were lured to the sport because of last week's Men's Gold Medal Game between the USA and Canada...

 With what was assumed to be a surefire excellent matchup between two Original Six teams that just happen to be division rivals, one of which is among the best teams in the league and the other being the Detroit Red Wings, as the next game televised on NBC, what could possibly go wrong?

Well Cristobal Huet, for one.

Ouch.  Here we go...

He was doing alright until about four minutes into the second period when he turned all ... well, Huet-y. Four goals on seven shots in 6:15 and the game, which Chicago had been leading 2-0, was pretty much over. It was a total gong show of goaltending ineptitude that not only underscored that they'll let just about anyone start an NHL game these days, but also that if you came in expecting Canada/USA-quality play, you might wanna be prepared to settle for Latvia-Norway.

Ouch, ouch, ouch. And here I thought that I was talking some smack against our little bros from the Windy City.  Yahoo Sports just threw a big clump of wet dirt into the face of the Blackhawks.

Lambert also blasts the officiating for the Kane goal being disallowed, but that really doesn't hold water with Wings fans since it happened to Holmstrom not even a week ago.