The Setup: Red Wings @ Predators – 11/23/09

Well, I (barely) survived the weekend and now it’s time to get back to business. As I mentioned late last week, I’ll be playing catchup on analysis from the loss to Florida and the win over Montreal throughout the day today, but I wanted to get the pregame material taken care of for tonight’s duel with our old friends down in Tennessee.

As if we hadn’t suffered from the injury bug enough at this point, the Red Wings now begin a 4 to 8 week stretch without Niklas Kronwall, who is out with a sprained knee after taking a knee-on-knee hit from Canadiens dirty-man Georges Laraque. Say what you will about the play or about Laraque, but man was that an ugly hit. I was watching the game with a group of friends this weekend (one of them a Canadiens fan), and we spent a good ten minutes arguing about the play even before we found out that Kronwall would be out for such a long period of time. It’s really unfortunate for the Wings, but in a season that has been as trying as this one, it’s just another obstacle that must be overcome.

With Kronwall out, here’s how the lines shake out for tonight’s contest:

Lines

Forwards

Holmstrom-Datsyuk-Bertuzzi

Cleary-Zetterberg-Leino

Draper-Helm-Eaves

Miller-Abdelkader-May

Defense

Lidstrom-Ericsson

Rafalski-Lebda

Stuart-Meech

Goaltender

Osgood

Other News and Notes

• With Kronwall out, the defensive pairings have gotten shuffled like crazy. Most notable is that Babcock has broken up Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski, as well as moved Brad Stuart down to help anchor the third pairing. Here’s what the production charts have in terms of pair production through the first 21 games:
  • Lidstrom/Ericsson: 0 G, 0 A, 0 PTS, -1
  • Rafalski/Lebda: 0 G, 0 A, 0 PTS, -2
  • Stuart/Meech: Have not played together this season
• Let’s remember that the above pairings are for even strength play alone and don’t include special teams. That said, Lidstrom, Rafalski and Kronwall have provided the bulk of defensive scoring on the powerplay, so Ericsson and Stuart will have to step up in their absence.
• Don’t look now, but the Preds are red hot entering tonight’s matchup, having won their last five in a row. A win in regulation for the Preds would leapfrog them over the Wings and drop Detroit to fourth in the Central.
• My old stomping grounds over at Winging It In Motown has a great pregame interview up with Dirk Hoag from On the Forecheck. I highly recommend checking it out before tuning into tonight’s game.

We’ll see you back here after the game. Go Wings!!!!

Tags: Brad Stuart, Brett Lebda, Brian Rafalski, Derek Meech, Georges Laraque, Jonathan Ericsson, Nashville Predators, Nicklas Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall