Weekly Preview: March 11th-17th, 2012

Weekly Preview: March 11th-17th, 2012

The Red Wings are coming off a disappointing week and heading on a 3 game road trip in the Sunshine State. Detroit currently sits 4th in the Western Conference 4 points ahead of the 5th place Predators. It looks like Detroit is a lock for the playoffs but they need to keep winning if they want to get a good seed, and home ice advantage (a big plus for the Wings this season) this post-season.

Game 1: @Los Angeles

Despite a sloppy performance last week Detroit managed to get their lone win of the week against the Los Angeles Kings. Detroit was able to make their shots count, scoring 4 goals on 15 shots against All-Star goalie Jonathan Quick. Such a strategy wouldn't be advisable if the Wings would like to win this one. They will however have Jimmy Howard and possibly Todd Bertuzzi come back for this game. Having Jimmy Howard back is great for this week due to the road-trip as despite Joey MacDonald's great play he isn't experienced enough to play all the games this week. Todd Bertuzzi could add some grit to the top lines giving room for Zetterberg and Franzen to take more shots. LA will be hungry in this game as they are finally in the play-off hunt again in a 3 way tie for 8th place with 76 points for the final play-off spot.

Game 2: @Anaheim

The Ducks are in do-or-die mode now. After having a horrible start to the year they jumped back into the thick of things after the All-Star breaks going on an impressive run fighting up to 12th place in the West, 8 points out of a playoff spot. The Ducks will pretty much need to win out the rest of their schedule so look for them to be playing each game as if it is their last. Anaheim's Corey Perry has scored 5 points in the last 5 games but is listed as questionable heading into their game against Colorado. If Detroit gets some of their big guns healed up (Datsyuk, Lidstrom) in time for this game, the Wings could put an end to the Ducks season.

Game 3: San Jose

San Jose sits in 11th place, 1 point out a play-off spot at the start of this week. Proving that the lower rung of a ladder in the Western Conference is extremely volatile. The Sharks, once an extremely offensive team has cooled down recently and has scored three goals or less in twelve consecutive games. Detroit's defensive and goaltending departments have been playing well as of late and if Datsyuk and Bertuzzi can come back into the lineup and stabilize the Red Wing's top 2 lines, Detroit could easily come out with a win in this one.

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Detroit hasn't been playing well lately, largely due to the amount of injuries they have had recently, but things look as if they will turn around with a number of these players coming back into the lineup. Look for Detroit to rack up the wins in this one.