I am not here to talk about how travel might affect the wings (because its playoff time) or what historical data says about who wins this series or how our lack of depth may come into play. THROW ALL THAT OUT because we played 4 games against the ducks, we have dealt with travel/injuries already and we know what to expect tonight at the Honda Center! The fans are going to be extremely loud, Hiller is going to be on his game, and the ducks skaters will be very physical. We just need to understand all those factors and do our very best to neutralize it...very simple right?
With Justin Abdelkader out for one more game, Samuelsson will be receiving more minutes tonight on the top line with Zetty-B and Pavs. He will need to contribute a great amount and our top veterans should make it easy on him as long as he gets to the net and is more physical. The 36 year old Swede can still play and needs to perform on the top line tonight.
“I felt good actually,” Samuelsson said Tuesday afternoon at the team hotel. “I shouldn’t say surprising, but I felt like I’ve been in (all along). I felt fresh and like I can go tomorrow again.”
Another old vet that will need to be huge for the Wings tonight is Todd Bertuzzi. He played in Game 2, sat out in Game 3 (where we got dominated) and added extra value to the 4th lines in Game 4 with Eaves and Emmerton. I love Bertuzzi and he needs to be strong tonight with his passing and forechecking to be effective.
“I had been out for three months so kind of understand what it takes in order to come in,” said Bertuzzi, who has dealt with a sore back all season. “The other lines have been pretty much playing pretty well so it’s just something you got to adapt to. You have to change your game. It’s a little bit different. You can’t afford to make those high-risk plays in our end. You’ve got to keep it simple and go from there.”
Tonight is going to be a late one, but I can't wait to see our wings come out to play tonight! No team has built enough momentum to record back-to-back wins in this series and there is no better time than tonight's game 5.
“I concur with that but I'm a believer that's how the playoffs are,” Babcock said. “You just keep playing and you take them one at a time, the highs and lows of it. There's huge highs and huge lows, that's just the playoffs each and every year. One minute you think, 'Oh, my God we're never winning!' and the next minute you think you're going to win the series.”
Gotta win the puck battles against the boards, find the loose pucks and get them to the net, mirroring what we did to Hiller with 49 shots on Monday. Sharpen up our defense to eliminate their scoring chances and make life a bit easier for Howard (even though he's has been sensational so far).
Wings need a full team effort but it definitely starts with our veteran fill-ins Samuelsson and Bertuzzi since their role has increased. Puck drop 10pm EST/9pm CST so wings fans get ready for a great one tonight!!
LETS GO RED WINGS!! #LGRW
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