Tonight the Red Wings begin play in their 20th consecutive post season when they take on the Phoenix Coyotes in round 1 game 1 from the Joe Louis Arena. Face off is scheduled for 7:00PM ET and you can watch it locally in Detroit on FSN Detroit.
According to Ansar Khan of Mlive.com veteran forward Mike Modano will be a healthy scratch for the Wings.
“I talked to Mike and he explained it to me. I totally understand it,” Modano said. “It’s up to me now if I get the opportunity to give him a reason not to take me back out.”
Modano has had a tough season missing significant time after lacerating his wrist earlier in the season.
“It’s been a difficult season, played a lot of catchup (after getting back), trying to get up to these guys,” Modano said. “At that point the team was pretty solidified, the lines and everything. You needed to do something extraordinary to get in there. If that chance comes, try to take advantage of it.”
Red Wings had coach Mike Babcock said it was a very difficult decision for him and his coaching staff to make.
“It’s a huge decision. We brought him here for (playoffs),” coach Mike Babcock said. “He’s out of Game 1, he’s got to get himself ready for Game 2. I imagine it was very tough for Mike. It wasn’t easy for myself or the coaches to make this decision, either.”
Furthermore according to Khan, defenseman Niklas Kronwall makes his return to the lineup after missing the past five games because of an upper-body injury.
Here is tonight’s anticipated lineup according to Khan.
Franzen-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Cleary-Abdelkader-Bertuzzi
Hudler-Filppula-Miller
Draper-Helm-Eaves
Modano (scratched)
Lidstrom-Stuart
Ericsson-Rafalski
Kronwall-Salei
Kindl (scratched)
Howard
MacDonald
Osgood
Khan also notes that Derek Meech and Cory Emmerton also skated with the team.
Source: Mlive.com
