The Islanders announced Doug Weight has been activated off IR and Mike Iggulden has been returned to Bridgeport so drop another player from the man-games lost to injury for Friday's game.
03/24/2009 DET 3 @ EDM 2
03/23/2009 DET 3 @ CGY 5
03/20/2009 DET 6 @ ATL 3
03/17/2009 PHI 2 @ DET 3
03/15/2009 DET 4 @ CBJ 0
Player GP G A PTS +/-
Pavel Datsyuk 73 30 59 89 35
Henrik Zetterberg 69 29 38 67 15
Marian Hossa 68 37 29 66 23
Brian Rafalski 74 10 47 57 21
Johan Franzen 63 31 24 55 19
Jiri Hudler 74 22 32 54 6
Nicklas Lidstrom 71 13 38 51 30
Niklas Kronwall 72 4 42 46 1
Mikael Samuelsson 73 18 21 39 5
Daniel Cleary 66 14 24 38 6
Updated Player Pos
03/10/09 Andreas Lilja D Concussion, knee IR. Out indefinitely
Player GP W-L-OT S GAA SV%
Chris Osgood 40 24-6-8 1048 3.18 .884
Ty Conklin 38 25-9-4 975 2.42 .912
NYI Fan Central Comments:
Detroit Red Wings tonight attempt to become only the third team in NHL history to record three fifty win seasons in a row which has not happened since the 1970's era.
Islanders last played in Detroit December 12/4/2005 and defeated the Wings 2-1 in a game if I recall Mike York scored a late goal. Steve Stirling was into his final month as coach for those looking back.
Needless to write the Wings are an outstanding club but their goaltending at times can be suspect, will they take the Islanders lightly who should not be happy with their recent play or how some games have gotten away from them because those losses seem a lot more about the mistakes by the team than what the other team is doing or do we see the club perform as it did against New Jersey and in Montreal where they generated quality chances and scored skilled goals?
This should be a fun test for the young players, only Scott Gordon knows who gets the call in net but with back to back I expect Joey MacDonald will start against his former team as Danis did against Montreal.
Wings give up some goals, but they also have scored 276 goals.
For the lottery only fans, it seems anything short of a free fall by Tampa and especially Colorado who are playing like they might not gain another point, it seems a three team race for 30th overall which means a first or second pick in this summers draft.
Islanders currently trail Colorado by eight points but with win disparity you can make that nine as the first tie-breaker goes to the Avs despite the Isles recent win head to head.
For my money I'd like to see the Islanders put on a very impressive show tonight because the turn-around back home the next night will not be easy with the Flyers already in New York on Friday waiting and coming off a bad loss themselves.
This is the final game against the Western Conference.