Red Wings at Blue Jackets
After dropping a home-and-home series against the reigning Stanley Cup champions, the Detroit Red Wings look to make the most of a favorable portion of their schedule when they visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday. Detroit, which holds a two-point lead over Philadelphia for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, will play five of its next six games versus teams currently outside of the postseason picture.
Losers of six of their last nine (3-4-2), the sputtering Red Wings hope to receive a jolt with the potential return of veteran forward Pavel Datsyuk (flu). "A little bit better. I'm just looking to play (Tuesday), I'm hoping," Datsyuk told MLive.com. The Blue Jackets had won four of six before getting blitzed in a 6-0 shellacking by the Flyers on Saturday. "As I said right after the game, we just need to push right by that and get back to playing the way we were," coach John Tortorella told the Columbus Dispatch after Monday's practice. "We have been a pretty good, consistent hockey club here of late. So we're going to try to get right back to that."
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN Detroit, FSN Ohio (Columbus), NHL.TV
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (32-22-11): Coach Jeff Blashill is doing his best to keep a positive attitude as his team has converted just twice in its last 28 opportunities with the man advantage. "It is frustrating, but we've got to fight through the frustration," Blashill told the Detroit Free Press. "I don't know if there's new wrinkles or just get back to what our principles are. Sometimes you've got to reset yourself with your principles." The Red Wings failed on their lone power-play chance in a 2-1 shootout win over Columbus on Feb. 23, but killed off all three short-handed situations as part of a 17-for-17 run before yielding a pair of odd-man scores in both outings versus Chicago.
ABOUT THE BLUE JACKETS (27-31-8): Brandon Saad (team-leading 24 goals) is expected to miss his second straight game after suffering an upper-body injury against Edmonton on Friday. General manager Jarmo Kekalainen told the Columbus Dispatch that the team is not expected to call up a player from the minors to deal with an ailing Saad, who is listed as day-to-day. Defenseman Ryan Murray also missed practice on Monday, but likely will be in the lineup versus Detroit.
OVERTIME
1. Detroit G Jimmy Howard will get the nod Tuesday - he blanked the Blue Jackets twice last season to improve to 11-5-3 with a 1.90 goals-against average in his career against them.
2. Blue Jackets C Boone Jenner scored in the previous meeting with the Red Wings and has six goals and one assists in his last 10 games overall.
3. Detroit C Riley Sheahan scored the tying goal and also tallied in the shootout against Columbus last month.