Good Morning Hockeytown! The Wings are in Winnipeg this evening to take on the Jets, the first game between these two teams in a year, game time is at 8pm et and can be seen on FSD and in Canada on TSN3. Last season the Jets won both matches between the two teams. They will play again on Valentines Day at the Joe. Both teams currently stand at 23 points and the Jets have a home record of 4-3-1 and the Wings road record improved to 3-2-3 with Tuesdays shut out of the Blue Jackets. While the Wings power play has struggled this season it has improved to a 19.2 % but the Jets are a dismal 9% with a man advantage. Both teams have strong penalty killing with the Wings at 89.1% and the Jets a 86.7%. The Wings made a number of roster moves yesterday the biggest of which was putting Andrej Nestrasil on waivers, the move was made so Stephan Weiss could come off IR. Brendan Smith went on short term IR due to an infection on his hand will be out at least seven days, Xavier Ouellet was called up in his place. Pavel Datsyuk has suffered a recurrence of his groin injury from last week and missed Tuesdays game. He travelled with the team but is not expected in the line up this evening. It is hoped that he will be able to play Saturday in Toronto. Petr Mrazek who has been brought up to back stop Jim Howard due to Jonas Gustavssons shoulder injury will be getting the start in net today. It will be his first NHL game of the season. Top Headlines: *Roster Moves and Line Changes *Justin Abdelkader Creates Havoc *Nationally Broadcast Games Today ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Roster Moves: Nestrasil Placed on Waivers, Ouellet Called Up While Smith on IR, Mrazek to Start Tomorrow at the Jets The Wings made a number of roster moves and announced some line changes for tomorrows game today. The biggest news was about Andrej Nestrasil being placed on waivers so Stephan Weiss can come off IR. If Nestrasil clears at noon tomorrow he will be assigned to the Griffins, Nestrasil had a good start in his NHL debut season but has been a healthy scratch in recent games. Weiss will be playing with Griffins on Friday and possibly Saturday as well for conditioning. Weiss could be back in the Wings lineup for the game on Monday against the Senators. Brendan Smith has been placed on short term IR due to an infection in his hand and will miss at least seven days. Xavier Ouellet has been called up to take his place. Coach Babcock had wanted to keep Ouellet on the roster out of camp but it was decided to keep Nestrasil instead. Ouellet had a goal and four assists in 13 games with the Griffins this season. The Wings also announced that Petr Mrazek will be getting the start in net when they visit the Jets tomorrow. Mrazek has been up to back up Jim Howard due to Jonas Gustavssons shoulder injury. He has played in 11 games over the last two seasons for the Wings with a record of 3-5-0, he had two shut outs for the Wings last season. In his time with the Wings he has recorded a 1.80 GAA and a .926 save %. There was no word on Pavel Datsyuks status today, he missed last evenings game due a recurrence of his groin injury from a couple of weeks ago. He is expected to travel to Winnipeg but latest word doesnt expect him play tomorrow. According to reports the Wings are hoping to have him back in the line up for Saturdays game at the Leafs. Here is what Nestrasil had to say about his being waived to the freep and mlive: Its a weird feeling. Its so fresh that I didnt really have time to think about what would be the best option for me. Obviously, everybody knows me here and this is the organization I would love to play for but if someone claims me, then I will have to go play somewhere else and go play for the organization that (claims) me. Thats hockey life. Just take it and go with it. Great motivation for me to go wherever and keep working because I know I can play in this league. I gotta get on the puck little more. If you told me before the season that Im going to start here and play (13) games I would take it 100 percent. So it sucks. Everyone wants to play in the NHL, but on the other hand at least I proved to a lot of people I could play here, especially to myself. Its a great motivation to go wherever and keep working because I know I can play in this league. Coach Babcock had this to say about Nestrasil via freep: He needs to play in the American Hockey League. Its just one of those things. We need him to play in the (AHL) and maybe one day hell play. His pace was good at the start, but you know how the league changes. You know, the best bet for him is to spend a couple years in the American League and see if he cant keep growing his game. Now, Im not saying someone wouldnt pick him up. ... I just dont know how a kid grows playing no minutes and sitting in the crowd. Babcock also spoke about Weiss to freep: When you havent been healthy, you gotta get yourself playing. We got an obligation to help him help himself. So thats what were trying to do. But his part is to play well so he can get in the lineup and get playing. Weiss also spoke to freep about the plan for him going forward: I dont know whether Ill be playing, thats up to Babs, obviously. The plan is to go and get my feet wet, play a lot of minutes and then come back and be available to play whenever. Petr Mrazek spoke to mlive about his NHL experiences: I think its a little different now that it was two years ago. The first time I came here I didnt know what to do; I didnt know what to think about the NHL. I figured it was going to be faster. Now its a year and a half since I played my first NHL game, so its more comfortable now. Coach Babcock had this to say about Mrazek via mlive: Hes got a swagger about him. He thinks hes good and he plays good. Hes been great. Its a big game for him. Hes like lots of kids; he plays better than he practices. Hes got to learn how to practice good so he can play good consistently. But hes a real gamer. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Justin Abdelkader Creating Demolition Man Like Havoc In Tuesdays shut out of the Blue Jackets Justin Abdelkader provided a strong net front presence that helped the Wings get their first two goals even if he didnt get an assist to his credit. Abdelkader is working hard at replacing Tomas Holmstrom in his Demolition Man role. On both of the goals Abdelkader was able to get to the net front and tie up the defenders so effectively that Tatar and then Nyquist were able to capitalize on terrific scoring opportunities. Coach Babcock had this to say about Abdelkaders development via the detroitnews: He keeps getting better. We had four net-front presences on five goals, which is important playing against that goalie. With Bobrovsky, you have to find a way to get inside. You try to do that every night; some nights you get there and some nights you dont. Good for Abby. You learn over time. But the reality is, youve got to want to go there. Youre not scoring unless you go there. Look at the goals every night in the league, thats just the reality. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Todays Nationally Broadcast Games: ~Wild @ Flyers, 7pm et on NHL Network in the US ~Lightning @ Maple Leafs, 7:30pm et on TSN4 in Canada ~Predators @ Senators, 7:30pm et on TSN5 in Canada ~Red Wings @ Jets, 8pm et on FSD and in Canada on TSN3 ~Capitals @ Avalanche, 9pm et on SN360 in Canada ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Information from the freep, mlive and detroitnews was used in compiling this post. BELEIVE! ~~Red
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 12:00:01 +0000
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