Scouting the Red Wings

As usual, the Detroit Red Wings are comfortably in the Western Conference playoff picture, as they lead the Central Division by six points and sit second in the conference. The Red Wings have plenty of offense, as they rank third in the NHL in goals with 219, just one behind co-leaders Chicago and Vancouver. Detroit remains without Patrick Eaves (groin), Chris Osgood (sports hernia) and Brian Rafalski (back). Drew Miller is expected to be a healthy scratch tonight, with Jimmy Howard starting in goal. Below is my LAKings.com notebook for today, followed by game previews from the Detroit media and the expected lineups for the Red Wings and Kings.

Wings try to clean up sloppy play at home (Detroit News)

Chris Osgood, Brian Rafalski close to joining Red Wings’ lineup (Detroit Free Press)

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RED WINGS LINEUP
Henrik Zetterberg-Pavel Datsyuk-Dan Cleary
Todd Bertuzzi-Valtteri Filppula-Johan Franzen
Justin Abdelkader-Mike Modano-Tomas Holmstrom
Jiri Hudler-Darren Helm-Kris Draper

Nicklas Lidstrom-Brad Stuart
Niklas Kronwall-Jonathan Ericsson
Jakub Kindl-Ruslan Salei

Jimmy Howard

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KINGS LINEUP
Penner-Kopitar-Williams
Smyth-Stoll-Brown
Ponikarovsky-Handzus-Simmonds
Clifford-Lewis-Richardson

Mitchell-Doughty
Johnson-Scuderi
Martinez-Greene

Quick