Detroit to Face Hot Goalie in Atlanta; Game Preview

He doesn't have the best winning record of the two Thrashers netminders, but Ondrej Pavelec's stats up against his counterpart, Chris Mason's have won the young "future franchise goalie" the starter's job... for now.

He held a shutout streak that lasted a touch over two hours last week which included a 5-0 drilling of the run-and-gun Washington Capitals. Not to be forgotten is Pavelec's performance in Detroit almost exactly one year ago. The Thrashers held off the Red Wings to a 2-0 win, with the Czech goalie stopping all 40 shots that came his way. Of course, 12 months later this Red Wings team is a little better.

So much so in fact, Mike Babcock's biggest decision right now is which of his fourth-liners sit in the press-box. For the past three weeks or so Drew Miller and Patrick Eaves have been the unlucky pair to be frequent healthy scratches under Babcock's current rotation. Neither player has played particularly bad in fact, both Eaves and Miller traded 2 point games just last week, but such is the depth of the Detroit Red Wings. But will someone else be facing the axe this time around?

The way they're playing now, both Eaves and Miller would be walk-up starts for any other team, perhaps they've earned that status with Detroit. Perhaps Modano, Helm and Hudler should watch themselves. That's the beautiful thing about having this sort of depth -- players can't coast, they've gotta earn it!

Dan Cleary seems to have pulled up nicely after his early exit from the Calgary game with a sore shoulder. Mike Modano also appears to be at full health and ready to go for Atlanta.

Now onto the game.

Anything's possible in the NHL, but I think it's a fairly safe bet that this game won't be a repeat of last year's shutout victory for the Thrash. The Red Wings scoring is very balanced from top to bottom including the blueline, and while there have been off games here and there, the consistency of this attack usually proves to be unfriendly to a goalie's stats -- just ask Jaroslav Halak.

Atlanta will probably need to score at least 3 goals to win, probably more and that's not going to be easy either. Jimmy Howard wasn't stellar against the Flames or Wild, and that's why I believe he will come out very sharp in this one. Howard's not one to get rattled, and doesn't seem to care too much for losing. Atlanta will have their work cut out for them.

Enjoy the game!

UPDATE: As it happens, the speculation was correct; Miller and Eaves are in with Hudler the tonight's healthy scratch.