Detroit Red Wings Banner Night Special For Them Too
By Tim Redinger
The Detroit Red Wings are in town for the Buffalo Sabres tonight as both teams will get set to honor former goaltender Dominik Hasek. While Hasek played the bulk of his career for the Buffalo Sabres, he did have stops with the Detroit Red Wings.
Dominik Hasek joined the Detroit Red Wings on two separate occasions after the Buffalo Sabres, winning Stanley Cups in 2002 and 2008. While a Cup champion, it is doubtful that the Red Wings would ever honor Hasek for his brief stint in the wheeled wing uniform, so tonight offers players and management to give the proverbial stick tap to the Dominator as well as he is honored by the Buffalo Sabres.
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Of course if Dominik Hask had anything to do with it, he might try and put on an NHL uniform once again, although his age would probably prevent that. But both teams battling tonight would be in need of a world class goaltender. The Sabres more long term, but the Detroit Red Wings will be without Jimmy Howard. Howard is listed as week to week, and will miss the annual All-Star game with a groin injury.
Detroit lost its last game, and will be hoping that the woeful Sabres won’t feed off the energy and emotion of alumni in the building and what could amount to the largest crowd the team played in front of so far this season. Certainly their seven losses in a row aren’t bringing fans to First Niagara Center.
Detroit doesn’t need to panic if Howard only misses a few weeks. They are sitting in one of the top three spots of the Atlantic Division, with a small buffer between them and the wild card spots. The Detroit Red Wings are ahead of where they were last season, but with an injury to Howard and teams behind them pressing for top eight spots, they can ill afford a long slump.
They shouldn’t be in danger of missing the playoffs, which will make it 24 straight seasons with a post-season bid; while their last Stanley Cup came with the Dominator on the roster – Detroit is the equivalent of a modern dynasty without the championships, with management always able to put together a team that challenged for hockey’s greatest prize.
With Jonas Gustavsson still out with a shoulder injury, the Red Wings are going to have to play smart hockey in front of their goaltenders to maintain pace in the Eastern Conference, or find themselves steeped with concern in the wild card race for the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals.
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Even with Howard in the lineup, the Detroit Red Wings aren’t the best in the Eastern Conference as far as goal differential. While they have scored 117 goals, they have allowed 106. Of the top eight teams currently in the playoff mix, only the Boston Bruins have a closer goal differential.
Number 39 goes to the rafter tonight, and if the Buffalo Sabres can’t snap the slump that has them sitting with seven straight losses, I fear that the only highlight of the night will be the raising of the banner to the rafters.