Weekly Preview: April 1-7th, 2012

Weekly Preview: April 1-7th, 2012

I'm a bit late to the punch here and the Florida game has already happened so this is a Preview/Review post. Other than that this is a big week for the Wings as they have just moved 1 point ahead of Nashville again reclaiming 4th spot in the West and move to 99 points, putting them in place to get their 12th straight 100+ point season.

Game 1:  Florida Panthers @ Home (Win: 2-1 SO)

A tight game from the goal scorers point of view. Detroit had 32 shots to Florida's 28 and both Jimmy Howard and Scott Clemmensen were able to stop all but one shot. Florida's goal came from a Kris Versteeg to Tomas Fleischmann one-timer in the 1st period and Detroit's goal came via some hard work from Valtteri Filppula who brought the puck in fought of checks and shot on net, a big rebound went out to Jiri Hudler who Slapped it in to tie the game and sent it to OT and later a Shoot out.

Pavel Datsyuk  scored as the first shooter but was matched by Wojtek Wolski's goal. Jiri Hudler would be the difference maker as he skated through up the ice slowly and sniped the puck top shelf. This was a big win for the Wings as they reclaimed their home ice advantage in the 1st round. Hopefully they can use this momentum to cary them through the rest of the week.

Game 2: @St. Louis Blues

Detroit takes on the Division Leading St. Louis Blues in Wednesday's contest. The goaltending duo of Jaroslav Halak and Brian Elliott have been lights out, which could spell trouble for this Detroit team whose offence has struggled as of late. If they can score like they did in their 7-2 routing of Columbus and get their Power Play chugging like it was earlier this year they should be fine.

Game 3: New Jersey @ Home

The Devils have locked up a playoff spot of their own it looks like they won't be moving from the 6th place in the Eastern Conference. Currently on a 3 game win streak they could be rolling with some momentum and tuning their game for the playoffs. It would be really nice for the Wings to beat up on the Devils to show Zach Parise how things could be if he signs with Detroit this off-season.

Game 4: Chicago @ Home

Detroit will have their hands full against their long time Division Rivals in this contest to close out the year. Its been full of ups and downs and though things are cool as of late the Wings look to be turning it on for playoff mode. There has been lots of talk of how Detoirt/Nashville will be the first round matchup but Detroit needs to put away Chicago in this matchup if they want to avoid Chicago creeping up in the standings.

***

The final week of the season is of course a huge week. Four games against Four Playoff teams. Detroit has been great at home this year and winning all of their games this week will ensure their home ice advantage in the first round - a luxury they seem to need.