Game #16: three down...three to go.

THE GAME

St. Louis Blues (9-4-3) @ Detroit Red Wings (11-3-1)

Ahh, the St. Louis Blues.  What a start they had this season.  A 9-1-2 record over their first 12 games.  That's pretty impressive.  Halak was a monster.  Their defense was playing well.  The young offensive talent was showing up on a nightly basis.  And then....well...they ran into the juggernaut that is the Columbus Blue Jackets.  Personally, I blame myself for the Blues recent skid.  A week ago St. Louis was the HD game on Center Ice.  I figured I would finally sit down and watch one of their games and see what all the fuss was about.  Instead of seeing a legit Blues team, they were destroyed 8-1 by Nash & Co.  They followed that masterpiece up with three more losses to Nashville, Phoenix, and Colorado.  They're currently riding a four game losing streak into Detroit.  The Red Wings, meanwhile, have won their last three...six of their last seven...and nine of their last 11.  If this was last year, I'd be much more worried about this game.  It seemed like teams that were struggling always found their cure against Detroit.  Not this season though.  This is a confident team that has yet to truly play down to the competition.  They've gone out an taken care of business when they've needed to.  I expect the same tonight.  The Blues are struggling.  Kick them while they're down now and let's make sure they don't get back up.

THE EXPECTED LINE-UP

Pavel Datsyuk - Henrik Zetterberg - Tomas Holmstrom

Johan Franzen - Valtteri Filppula - Jiri Hudler

Todd Bertuzzi - Mike Modano - Danny Cleary

Justin Abdelkader - Darren Helm - Drew Miller

Nicklas Lidstrom - Brad Stuart

Niklas Kronwall - Ruslan Salei

Johnathon Ericsson - Brian Rafalski

Jimmy Howard (starting)

Joey MacDonald 

In the press box: Patrick Eaves (healthy scratch), Jakub Kindl (healthy scratch) and Chris Osgood (groin)

On LTIR: Kris Draper (groin)

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

• The Wings are halfway done with sweeping their six-game home stand.  I foolishly (or brilliantly?) predicted on TP:60 - Episode #5 (Now available on iTunes!) that the Red Wings will win all six home games.  Don't let me down, boys.
• Uncle Mike wants to see an improvement on the power play.  So do I.  14th is unacceptable.  Call me a cocky, egotistical, homer of a fan, but you're the Detroit Red Wings, dammit.  All I ever remember growing up as a fan is that a power play meant an automatic goal.  The Wings used to be lethal.  Shanny or Hull in the slot for the one timer.  Everyone and their mother knew it was coming, but they could never stop it.  I wouldn't mind seeing Mule/Hank/Pav together on the first unit and Homer/Filp/Hudler on the 2nd.  If that doesn't work, throw in a little Bert or Cleary.
• Jimmah is a top ten goalie in this league and he's going to continue to prove it every single game.

• Jiri Hudler...you crazy S.O.B.  You've finally gone and scored your first goal of the season.  I'm absolutely thrilled (and somewhat annoyed because now I need to come up with a new bullet point every game preview).  Now let's back that goal up with some more.  I want some curly fries. 

BRENDAN SMITH

The Griffins split a weekend series in Hamilton against the Bulldogs.  On Saturday, Grand Rapids fell 2-1 and on Sunday, the Griffins won by the same score, 2-1.  Smith was held off the score sheet on Saturday, but was a +2 and had an assist on the game winning goal.  Grand Rapids is currently tied for third in the North Division with 19 points.  They're five points out of first place and have four games in hand on the division leading Abbotsford Heat.  The Griffins are in Cleveland to take on the Lake Erie Monsters tonight at 7PM.  Also, I'm going to attend my first Griffins' game on either 12/22 against Toronto or 12/26 against Lake Erie.  Brendan, if you're reading this, I'm expecting a goal on the night I attend.

Here are the highlights from the Griffs' 2-1 win on Sunday.  Smith's assist comes at the 1:47.

Let's Go Red Wings.