Time: 12:00pm ET
Place: Little Caesar’s Arena
Broadcast: BSDET, SNP
Canucks blog: Nucks Misconduct
This is the first game of a home and away back2back set with the Canucks as the Wings will start their West road trip on Monday in Vancouver (late games for us East Coasters). The Wings played the Canucks twice last season (October and March) and skated away with wins each time. We both won our previous games and are 4-5-1 over our last 10 games, but overall the Wings, on paper, have the edge. An odd thing to say.
The big news out of practice yesterday was an injury to Lucas Raymond that leaves him as a question mark. I look forward to being wrong and that he’s back in the lineup before this even posts. Jake Walman is also a question mark after taking the big hit in the Flames game and did not practice.
Would the return of the Seider-Chiarot pairing mean we should just chalk this up as a loss? At minimum, it at least evens the odds for the Canucks.
But enough about us, how are the Canucks doing?
Well, the Canucks were a bubbling pot o’ drama with their treatment of very good and nice man Bruce Boudreau who was fired and replaced with Rick Tocchet back in January. They’re in a messy rebuild, there does not seem to be a real plan other than upset the fans. As if that’s ever difficult for any team to do.
All that drama aside, this is the last game of a tough 4 game road trip for the Canucks, and they had one of those “character building” games in their win against the Islanders having to face their old pal Bo Horvat. A noon game to end a physically and emotionally charged trip, with a new coach still trying to put his stamp on the lineup, they might be dragging a bit which the Wings could take advantage of (or, they’ll score in the first two minutes because it’s the Wings who were slow).
Who are the troublemakers?
Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, and J.T. Miller are three guys to watch out for as usual. 27-year-old newbie Andrei Kuzmenko was also going strong but has been benched for the last two games. What he did to earn a trip to the Tocchet dog house I don’t know, but if he’s in the lineup he’ll be eager to prove he belongs there.
See you at noon for puck drop and Let’s Gooooooooo Red Wings!