Columbus Blue Jackets at Detroit Red Wings
March 26, 2012 – 7:30pm EDT
Joe Louis Arena – Detroit, Michigan
Radio – WBNS FM 97.1 – TV – Fox Sports Ohio
Opponents Blog: Winging It In Motown
First and foremost, my apologies for the lateness of this preview; work was crazy today!
At any rate, the Jackets are fresh off of locking up the overall top spot in the upcoming draft lottery, meaning they have far and away the best chance to land the #1 overall pick. It also means they’ve clinched the worst record in the league. As if we didn’t know that was coming…
Their reward? A home-and-home series with the Red Wings. However, these are not your slightly-older-brother’s Red Wings. I wrote in our season preview way back when that the top spot in the Central was Detroit’s until someone took it from them. Well, don’t look now, but two teams are currently ahead of Detroit in the division. The Wings are 2-6-2 in their last 10 games, and are sitting in fifth place in the Western Conference; perhaps slightly unfamiliar territory for them.
Part of that is due to injuries, as they’ve been missing Pavel Datsyuk, Niklas Lidstrom, and Johan Franzen a lot of late. The two former are back tonight, but the latter is still out. Expect the Wings to be pushing hard tonight to get every point possible.
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
(24-44-7, 55 Points; 5th division, 15th conference)
| Vinny Prospal | Mark Letestu | Rick Nash |
| R.J. Umberger | Derick Brassard | Cam Atkinson |
| Ryan Russell | Ryan Johansen | Derek Dorsett |
| Colton Gillies | Darryl Boyce | Jared Boll |
| Jack Johnson | David Savard |
| Brett Lebda | Nikita Nikitin |
| John Moore | Aaron Johnson |
| Steve Mason |
| Curtis Sanford |
Detroit Red Wings
(45-25-5, 95 Points; 3rd Division, 5th Conference)
| Valtteri Filppula | Henrik Zetterberg | Jiri Hudler |
| Gustav Nyquist | Pavel Datsyuk | Todd Bertuzzi |
| Andrew Miller | Justin Abdelkader | Danny Cleary |
| Tomas Holmstrom | Cory Emmerton | Jan Mursak |
| Nicklas Lidstrom | Ian White |
| Niklas Kronwall | Brad Stuart |
| Kyle Quincey | Jakub Kindl |
| Ty Conklin |
| Jimmy Howard |
Season Series
10/21/11 – Columbus 2 at Detroit 5 – RECAP
10/25/11 – Detroit 1 at Columbus 4 – RECAP
01/21/12 – Columbus 2 at Detroit 3 (SO) – RECAP
02/28/12 – Detroit 5 at Columbus 2 – RECAP
03/26/12 – Columbus at Detroit
03/28/12 – Detroit at Columbus
Head to Head
Detroit Columbus 2.97 (4) GPG 2.28 (28) 2.44 (6) GAPG 3.17 (29) 15.6% (22) PP% 15.1% (25) 79.9% (22) PK% 76.4% (30) Johan Franzen, 26 G leader Rick Nash, 26 Pavel Datsyuk, 43 A leader Vinny Prospal, 34 Henrik Zetterberg/Valtteri Filppula, 62 Pts leader Rick Nash, 50 Todd Bertuzzi, 62 PIM leader Derek Dorsett, 198 29-5-2 Home/Road 10-23-4 3/24 vs. Carolina, W 5-4 Last Game 3/25 vs. Edmonton, L 6-3 2-6-2 Last 10 4-6-0