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Detroit Red Wings Have to Stay Hot Out West

By Gwen De Young

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Feb 21, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Detroit Red Wings left wing Justin Abdelkader (8) and left wing Tomas Tatar (21) celebrate the game tying goal against Dallas Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen (32) during the third period at the American Airlines Center.The Red Wings defeated the Stars 7-6 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

As the month of February comes to an end this week the Detroit Red Wings will be headed on to their hardest part of their schedule. The next week for the team will consist of facing the Anaheim Ducks, L.A. Kings, San Jose Sharks and the Nashville Predators. Three of those four teams are some of the best teams in the NHL this season. In fact while the Kings aren’t in a playoff spot at the moment, they are still one of those teams that will play you tough and can cost you points if you let them.

This was the part of the month I was a little worried for when looking at the month preview. However, this may be the last difficult test for the team. March sees the Red Wings playing the Eastern Conference and playing teams they more than likely can beat. Yet, let us look at the next four games on the schedule for the Red Wings and why staying hot is needed for the team to keep up with everyone else.

Tonight vs Anaheim Ducks

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Tonight the Red Wings will be taking on the Anaheim Ducks who along with the Nashville I think are one of the teams that will end up coming out of the Western Conference to the Stanley Cup. The Ducks have Corey Perry and Andrew Conlingo and you can’t forget Ryan Getzlaf. The Red Wings will be going against John Gibson in net tonight with the Injury to Frederik Andersen, which as simple as it sounds, is where the Wings have to capitalize.

A crazy 5 plus goals each game would not be ideal, but the Ducks are a high-powered offense, they score 2.85 Goals Per Game and while the Red Wings have a higher GPG by 0.08, so that is really not that much of a difference. The team will be without Henrik Zetterberg which means that the younger guys will have to step up for his absence.

Tuesday vs L.A. Kings

In the second of a back to back night the Red Wings will be taking on the L.A. Kings. The Kings just spent the weekend playing in the 2015 Stadium Series at Levi Stadium. Early this season the Kings came to Detroit and got beat 5-2 by the Red Wings. The Red Wings looked really good against them and I could see the team winning in L.A.

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    • The hope for this game would be that maybe Zetterberg would be back, however with a head injury, it might be best to keep Zetterberg off the ice until they return home at the end of this week. Last thing you want is to lose your captain before the playoffs, which has happened before to this team. Zetterberg suffered a back injury during the Olympics and time without him is just bad for the team.

    Thursday vs San Jose Sharks

    San Jose is the only team the Red Wings have yet to play this season. The Sharks come to Detroit at the end of March to take the Wings on. The Sharks like the Kings just finished up playing in the Stadium Series where they lost 2-1 in a hard-hitting game. This season the Sharks are 30-23-8, I don’t see them making it out of the first round of the playoffs if they started today.

    I think the Red Wings could beat this team, they play a hard-hitting very west coast style of play, but they also have faults to their play. This is a game that as a fan I want them to win, but also some what expect them to win and I think it will be a good contest between two teams that are similar to one another.

    Saturday vs Nashville Predators

    Probably the hardest test the Detroit Red Wings have is when they travel into Nashville and take on the surprise Predators team. The Predators have one of the best goaltenders this season in Pekka Rinne, they allow the fewest goals against in the league at 2.27 GPG. Again, the only team in front of them is Montreal and the difference is a minimal 0.08.

    If this is the only game they don’t win during this road trip, I would be fine with that. The team isn’t going to win every game and losing to one of the best teams in the league isn’t that bad of thing. The first time these two teams met however the Red Wings did win 5-2 so maybe the team has the Predators number.

    Either way, this week will be interesting to see how the team fairs. It will be nice to get the end of this month out-of-the-way if anything. Hopefully they can come back home without any new injuries and hopefully they will get players like Zetterberg and Teemu Pullkin back from injury.

    Next: Should the Detroit Red Wings trade anyone at the deadline?

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