Weekly Preview: January 29 - February 4, 2012

Week: January 29 - February 4, 2012

Hopefully the Red Wings are feeling refreshed after the All-Star break and can put the disappointing game against the Habs behind them. The Red Wings are heading on a Northwest Division Road Trip this week playing the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks, and Edmonton Oilers. Though there are no Divisional games this week getting points against Western Conference opponents is just as important, especially if Detroit wants to stay in the number one spot.

But first a brief re-cap of how the Detroit player's did in the All-Star Game

All-Star Game (Final Score: 12-9 Team Chara)

Only two Red Wings represented Detroit at this year's All-Star Game, Pavel Datsyuk (who was picked first overall), and Jimmy Howard. Both were victorious as they were selected to Team Chara. Datsyuk had 3 assists, two of which were on Marian Gaborik goals and reconnected with former teammate Mariam Hossa's goal. Datsyuk and Hossa both shared an assist on Gaborik's 3rd goal of the game. Makes you wonder what could have happened if Hossa had stayed in Detroit.

Jimmy Howard had a decent game (from the perspective of an All-Star game) stopping 11 of 14 shots for a 0.786% Save Percentage. Interestingly enough, he played better against a team of All-Stars than he did against the Montreal Canadiens.

Game 1: @Calgary

Calgary is coming off of a rather disappointing 1-0 loss to the Pacific Division Leaders, the San Jose Sharks. That loss also ended Jarome Iginla's 3 game point streak so hopefully the Flames' Captain will remain cold as he, along with goaltender Miikka Kiprussoff seem to be Calgary's key to winning.

Niklas Lidstrom's Flu like symptoms will likely be gone by this point and the future Hall-of-Famer will re-add the composure that was lacking in the loss against Montreal.

Game 2: @Vancouver

Vancouver currently sits on the top of the Northwest Division and is on a nice roll going 6-2-2 in their last ten. Hopefully the All-Star break has squelched their momentum. Roberto Luongo was experiencing some cramping during the shoot-out against Edmonton but that cramping will have likely subsided by the time they play the Wings. If Jimmy Howard can return to form and Datsyuk, Bertuzzi, Filppula, and the rest of the Wings could continue scoring as they have Detroit should take this one.

Game 3: @Edmonton

Edmonton's hot start has cooled off considerably and now they sit in 14th place in the Western Conference and have gone 2-6-2 in their last 10 games. In their last game before the All-Star Break goaltender Devan Dubnyk played well stopping 33 of 35 shots for the Oilers so if the young team in front of him can generate some offence this could end up being an interesting game.