The Blue Jackets have been playing pretty well of late, posting four wins over their past five games. They have benefitted from the strong play of rookie goaltender Steve Mason, who blanked three teams before allowing five goals to the Blues in his team's 5-2 loss to St. Louis on Saturday. Tonight will be the Jackets' fifth-consecutive road game.
The Wings are winners of their last three, two of those wins coming over Chicago. The string of wins follows a pair of disappointing losses following the Christmas Break, first to Nashville and then to Colorado, and seems to mark an improvement in their overall play heading out of the gates in the new calendar year. Their wins over the upstart Chicago Blackhawks were fairly masterful, though Saturday's shootout win over Minnesota was something of a relapse. They'll look tonight to pick up where they left off at the Winter Classic.
Ty Conklin will start tonight for Detroit after sitting in favor of Chris Osgood on Saturday.
The lineup changes on defense continue, with Brett Lebda and Chris Chelios, both healthy scratches Saturday, entering the lineup for Derek Meech and Andreas Lilja. Meech was given a lineup spot against the Wild in order to keep him fresh, while the same is true for Chelios tonight. Lilja has had a strong season thus far, but becomes the odd man out as players like Niklas Kronwall, Brian Rafalski, Brad Stuart, and Nick Lidstrom have priority.
Keep an eye on Pavel Datsyuk tonight. He had a nine-game point streak (8 goals, 17 pts) snapped in Minnesota, but scored a highlight-reel worthy shootout goal and looks nowhere near ready to slow down. His confidence level is soaring, as evidenced by his response to Detroit media's question on whether or not he has a name for the move he used in the shootout: "Name? Goal."
