About the Red Wings - 12-13-11
A preview of the Red Wings.
When and where: 7 p.m., EDT; Consol Energy Center.
TV: Root Sports, Fox Sports Detroit.
Record: 18-9-1, 37 points. The Red Wings are in fourth place of the Western Conference and second place in the Central Division.
Leading Scorer: Johan Franzen, 28 points (13 goals, 15 assists).
Last Game: 7-1 home win against the Jets, Saturday. Jiri Hudler scored two goals for the Red Wings.
Last Game against the Penguins: 5-4 home shootout loss, March 21. Pascal Dupuis had two regulation goals and an assist for the Penguins.
Red Wings Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Pavel Datsyuk. He has scored in 10 of his past 12 games.
Ex-Penguins on the Red Wings: Ty Conklin, G; Chris Conner, RW.
Ex-Red Wings on the Penguins: None.
Useless Red Wings Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: Captain Nicklas Lidstrom (above) holds the Red Wings' single-season record for points with 80 in 2005-06. Former Penguin Paul Coffey has the franchise's second-best mark with 77 in 1993-94.
Best Red Wings Video We Could Find: Former Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman scoring his 400th career goal against the Penguins in 1992-93:
{youtube width="465" height="266"}BESa2UVGsmw{/youtube}
Probable goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (15-6-2, 2.23 GAA, .919 SV%) for the Penguins and Jimmy Howard (17-6-1, 1.85 GAA, .931 SV%) for the Red Wings.
Injuries: For the Penguins, center Jordan Staal ("lower body") is day to day. Defenseman Robert Bortuzzo (head) and center Sidney Crosby (head) are out. Defensemen Kris Letang (head), Ben Lovejoy (left wrist), Zbynek Michalek (head), Brian Strait (elbow), center Dustin Jeffrey (knee) and right winger Richard Park (foot) are on injured reserve. For the Red Wings, right winger Patrick Eaves (jaw) and left winger Jan Mursak (left ankle) are on injured reserve.
Potential lines and defensive pairings: The Penguins' primary lines and defensive pairings against the Islanders Saturday were:
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Matt Cooke - Tyler Kennedy - Pascal Dupuis
Steve Sullivan - Joe Vitale - Arron Asham
Steve MacIntyre - Craig Adams - Jason Williams
Paul Martin - Deryk Engelland
Brooks Orpik - Matt Niskanen
Alexandre Picard - Simon Despres
-The Red Wings primary lines and defensive pairings against the Jets Saturday were:
Johan Franzen - Pavel Datsyuk - Todd Bertuzzi
Valtteri Filppula - Henrik Zetterberg - Jiri Hudler
Dan Cleary - Darren Helm - Chris Conner
Drew Miller - Justin Abdelkader - Tomas Holmstrom
Nicklas Lidstrom - Ian White
Niklas Kronwall - Jonathan Ericsson
Jakub Kindl - Brad Stuart
Notes:
-"I don't think 'frustrating' even describes it." - Crosby on his latest setback.
-"You want the top players to be playing and promote the league. It's not good when a top guy is hurt like that." - Lidstrom on Crosby.
-Richard Park will be sidelined four to six weeks due to a foot injury. (PG+)
-Fleury has 199 career wins.
-Adams has appeared in 699 career games.
-Asham has 199 career points.
-Dupuis has 299 career points.
-Orpik has 98 career points.
-Martin has 197 career points.
-Picard has 47 career assists.
-Sullivan has 696 career points.
-Niskanen has 95 career points.
-Kronwall is one of the league's best in blocked shots.
-Our live blog begins at approximately 6 p.m. Please tune in.
(Photo: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)