Time: 8:30pm ET
Place: United Center
TV: BSDET, NBCSCH
Hawks blog: Second City Hockey
Wings have had a few days off after a busy start to the season that saw us with two wins and an OTL (thanks Larkin for getting us the loser point). On the other side, the Hawks have lost two games but did win their most recent match-up against the Sharks on Saturday. Yes, they’ve had almost a whole week off. Normally I’d wonder if that means a slow start, but the fans will no doubt get their squad pumped up with a DE-TROIT SUCKS chant.
Obviously, the big news for us is that Vrana will be out for an indefinite amount of time. So we’ll see if Monday’s lines get re-shuffled as the Wings decide what a non-Vrana and non-Bertuzzi lineup should look like for the longer term.
The Hawks are expected to be Not Very Good this year, something we have in common that isn’t our reverse retro stripes. And after Chicago’s Not Very Good start to the season, the Wings are a team they’d really enjoy beating to say “sure we’re bad at hockey but at least we’re not you!”. Something I say to them all the time.
My plan is that Mrazek is in net and the Wings score five goals and do not let in more than two goals, neither of which are scored by AA. Let’s see how that goes!