THE GAME
Detroit Red Wings (2-0-1) @ Dallas Stars (2-0-0)
The story of this game is without question Mike Modano's return to Dallas. He was the face of the Stars' franchise and apparently is a pretty good looking guy who sold hockey in Texas. Expect to see Modano receiving cheers before the game if he's introduced to the crowd, but during the game I expect to hear some boos...especially when he scores both his goals tonight (Crazy prediction alert!). For the Red Wings, they can look amazing out there on offense with some of their passing, but I would like to see the defense tighten up a bit more tonight. Janik is still playing too (Are the Wings' doctors sure he wasn't concussed in the beat down he received last game? No? Are you positive? Can we call Brendan Smith? Please?).
THE EXPECTED LINE-UP
Pavel Datsyuk-Henrik Zetterberg-Tomas Holmstrom
Johan Franzen-Valterri Filppula-Todd Bertuzzi
Jiri Hudler-Mike Modano-Danny Cleary
Drew Miller-Darren Helm-Patrick Eaves
Nicklas Lidstrom-Brad Stuart
Niklas Kronwall-Doug Janik
Jakub Kindl-Ruslan Salei
Chris Osgood (starting)
Jimmy Howard
In the press box: Brian Rafalski (knee), Justin Abdelkader (ribs), and Jonathon Ericsson (back spasms)
On IR: Kris Draper (groin)
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
- Can the "Lumberjack Line" continue to roll? (I'm leaving this in the W2W4 category until the line is held scoreless in a game)
- Ozzie is back in net again. Two solid goaltenders will go a very long way for this team.
- The Janik/Kronwall pairing needs to be better.
- Jiri Hudler. Score a goal. Seriously...Do it...Do it........................Do it. (This is staying here too until Scuttles scores a goal)
Smith and the Griffins continue their season tomorrow night with two games in two nights in Manitoba against the Moose. Smith is currently leading the Griffins in scoring (1G, 2A in 2GP). Although, if Janik attempts another fight tonight, Smith might not make it through the weekend in Manitoba. Maybe he'll see a call-up and hop on a flight to Phoenix on Saturday (Wishful thinking, of course. I don't actually expect this to happen.)
UNCLE LEON'S THOUGHTS
"Modano will be fired up. His line will contribute two goals. Add that to one each from the top two lines and you have a 4-1 victory for the good guys."
EMERSON HOCKEY UPDATE
We have our first scrimmage of the season tonight against Clark University (so sadly, I won't be able to watch the game tonight and there won't be any Post Game Post-its tonight or tomorrow. I will have a Kronwall post up soon). Tonight's scrimmage is big considering we've only had two practices so far and our first real game is Saturday against Berklee. Hopefully I'll play more Lidstrom-like tonight than Janik-ish. Hell, I will be happy with a nice quiet, solid Brad Stuart type outing.
NEWS OF THE DAY
I'm going to be on the Food Network tonight at 10PM. This summer Iron Chef Michael Symon came to Emerson to film part of his new called Food Feuds. I got to eat two different kinds of pizza and choose which one was better. I wore a Red Wings' shirt to the taping, but they made me turn it inside out. I don't know if I made the cut in editing, but you should DVR or TiVo the program since it will most likely air when the game is still on.
Let's Go Red Wings.
Super jealous you get to play College. I started at 21 so that was not an option for me. I love the adult league i play in tho. We're on a 3 game winning streak.
ReplyDeleteCarter, it's just a club team, but it's been fun as hell so far. We got rocked in our scrimmage. Team might not be very good, but it's great to be back on the ice.
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