Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Red Wings vs. St. Louis Preview (4/4/12)


Tonight begins a critical 3 game stretch for the Wings.  Nashville defeated Minnesota in a shootout last night to move 1 point ahead of the Wings and into 4th place, with 2 games remaining.  Detroit needs to get a win tonight in order to move back ahead of Nashville.  That being said, let’s look ahead to tonight’s game.

Detroit currently leads the season series with St. Louis 3-2.  One interesting thing to note is that the winner of each game has scored 3 goals in 4 of the games, with the lone outlier being 2 goals scored in the first season matchup back in November.  That means there is a good chance that tonight’s magic goal number will be 3.  Kyle Quincey will be serving a one game suspension tonight, so it will be interesting to see how Babcock’s juggling of the defensive pairs will work out.  Elliot gets the nod in goal for St. Louis tonight, which means Detroit has to spray him with shots when dealing with his NHL best 1.48 GAA, although his career GAA against Detroit is 2.57 and .918 SV PCT.  Let’s hope Detroit comes out of the gate with a spark, unlike the last time they played a key game, against Nashville, which ended with a 4-1 loss.  I predict that they will, with Datsyuk and Hudler playing a big role in the game.  I’m going against the season trends and predicting a 4-3 Detroit victory in a HUGE road game.  Detroit knows what’s at stake tonight and does not want to have to play Nashville on the road or the Pacific division champ.  For the sake of a playoff run let’s hope that I’m right.  LGRW

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