Detroit Red Wings

After allowing the fewest number of power-play goals during the regular season, the Blackhawks are a perfect 20-for-20 killing penalties in six playoff games.

1:00p ET, United Center Chicago, IL TV: NBC, CBC, RDS Radio: 97.1 The Ticket Blackhawks Blogs: Second City Hockey Detroit Red Wings Tickets Well Game 1 certainly went exactly how we all planned, right? Let's be honest. It was pretty bad. The Red Wings held their own and played a decent to solid 1st period. We were all thinking, "hey man! 1-1 tie, not too shabby. Wings can hang." Oops. It was a nightmare after that. We knew the Red Wings were the inferior team heading into this thing and we sure as hell knew if they were going to win it wasn't going to be easy. That 4-1 score doesn't look good, but it could have been a lot worse. We've talked about the kids on this team gaining experience throughout the playoff run. Game 2 today is a perfect example. Detroit got their asses kicked. Some of the youth -- including a player I may or may not be a fan of -- played downright awful. Shitty ass playoff games happen. How the kids bounce back today is going to be huge. You know Pav and Hank will be better. You know Jimmy will be Jimmy. What the Wings need is Smith & Co. to take it to the next level. The Red Wings are not out of this. It's only one damn game. This team can play better and they will. Rome wasn't built in a day and playoff series aren't won in a single game. There's too much pride in that dressing room and too much leadership to let what happen on Wednesday happen again. The Wings' legs will be back. They'll play a heavy game. They'll get this series tied up at 1. The Expected Lineup Henrik Zetterberg - Pavel Datsyuk - Justin Abdelkader Johan Franzen - Valtteri Filppula - Daniel Cleary Gustav Nyquist - Joakim Andersson - Damien Brunner Patrick Eaves - Cory Emmerton - Todd Bertuzzi/Drew Miller * Niklas Kronwall - Jonathan Ericsson Brendan Smith - Kyle Quincey Carlo Colaiacovo - Jakub Kindl * Jimmy Howard (starting) Jonas Gustavsson Scratches: Ian White, Brian Lashoff, Jordin Tootoo. Mikael Samuelsson and Todd Bertuzzi/Drew MIller Injuries: Danny DeKeyser (thumb) and Darren Helm (back) RED WINGS PLAYOFF MATCH-UP BLACKHAWKS 4-4 Record 5-1 2.38 (9th in NHL) Goals Per Game 3.50 (2nd in NHL) 3.12 (11th) Goals Against Per Game 1.33 (1st) 21.4% (7th) Power Play % 18.8% (9th) 71.4% (13th) Penalty Kill % 100.0% (1st) 3 tied with 3 goals Goal Leader Patrick Sharp (6 goals) Henrik Zetterberg (8 points) Points Leader Patrick Sharp (9 points) The Red Wings are 35-40 (W-L) all-time against the Chicago Blackhawks in the postseason. Chicago has won 8 of the 15 series between these clubs. Last time these two teams met in a Game 2 in the postseason was May 19, 2009. Detroit won 3-2 in overtime. Brian Rafalski scored the Wings first goal, Cleary followed that up and Samuelsson had the game winner in OT. Chris Osgood made 37 saves. Howard is 4-2 with a 3.17 GAA and .907 SV% all-time in Game 2s during his career. He is 3-2 in Game 2 after losing Game 1. Crazy that in his 7 career playoff series the Red Wings have only won Game 1 once. Prediction: Detroit wins 2-1 (OT). Let's Go Red Wings.

The Blackhawks lead the series 1-0 and after Game 2 it will head back to Detroit for Games 3 and 4 Monday and Thursday at Joe Louis Arena.

Young defenseman has been working out his surgically repaired right thumb by stretching a rubber band.

The Blackhawks have beaten the Red Wings eight games in a row dating back to Jan. 14, 2012. Detroit doesn't need to change a lot of things, just work harder by skating better.

The Red Wings senior vice president told Art Regner of Fox Sports Detroit that the Red Wings are a 'middle of the pack' team and don't possess the depth of the Blackhawks, who won the NHL's regular-season championship this year.

DETROIT – The Red Wings had more jump in their practice on Friday, something that was missing prior to Wednesday’s 4-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. Having come off a grueling seven-game opening-...

CHICAGO — The Wings disposed of one Jack Adams Award finalist this postseason. Can they make it two? On Friday, Quenneville was named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award, which is presented to the head coach that contributed the most to his team’s success. Anaheim’s Bruce Boudreau, whose team was eliminated from the playoffs in seven games by Detroit, and Ottawa’s Paul MacLean, a former Wings assistant coach, are the other finalists. The Blackhawks began the season by earning a point in each of their first 24 games, going 21-0-3, to shatter the previous best mark to open the season of 16, which was set by Anaheim in 2006-07. “Getting our team ready right off the bat was something that we were excited about getting back playing,” Quenneville said when asked about the challenges of the work stoppage that led to a compact season. “We wanted to make sure our goals-against was at a regular or normal number. I thought last year was abnormal. And make sure our special teams improved at the start of the year. Getting off to a strong start was a point of emphasis.” Chicago ended up with the President’ Trophy with the league’s best record, 36-7-5. “I commend the guys for the way they organized themselves individually and collectively to get off to a good start,” Quenneville said. “That worked out nicely. We had a great start to our season. It was a fun year from our perspective as a coaching staff. It was one of those years where it was almost like automatic pilot. I don’t think it’s that easy, but certainly things fell into place in good ways and I think we had some real nice assets to work with in a lot of ways.” The Blackhawks finished first overall in team defense (2.02 goals-against per game), second in offense (3.10 goals per game) and third in penalty killing (87.2-percent). Quenneville won the award his only other time he was named a finalist, which with St. Louis in 1999-2000. Chicago posted a 26-2-1 mark when scoring first and were 26-1-2 when leading after two periods.

CHICAGO – After playing all five games of the Blackhawks’ opening round, forward Viktor Stalberg now finds himself out of the lineup. “I felt pretty good in the first series, the puck maybe didn’t bounce my way there in the end, but I think we were a pretty effective line,” Stalberg said. “I think he wasn’t happy with the team performance, he chose to take me out of the lineup and that’s how it is. I’ll live with that. It’s frustrating. I’ll do anything I can to support the guys and to be back in the lineup as soon as I get the chance and try to be effective once I get back in there.” Coach Joel Quenneville didn’t say if Stalberg would be back in for Game 2 or not. “It was short, standard I think,” Stalberg said when asked how his coach relayed the information. “Just be more intense out there, play harder, most of the guys here that when they’re not playing, nothing too different. He wants me to produce more and be more effective out there so hopefully when I get back I’ll try and make a difference.”

CHICAGO – Henrik Zetterberg’s response when asked if Johan Franzen should be more ornery on the ice. “He could be pretty mean but I think he’s playing the best hockey when he’s a little grumpy,” Zetterberg said. “I think maybe it’s up to us to get him a little bit grumpy before the games.”