Daily Deke: Red Wings host the Coyotes

One game on the NHL schedule tonight, so today’s Deke will be short and sweet.  Be sure to check out the Starting Goalies section throughout the season as well as the Team Lineups page.

The Phoenix Coyotes visit the Detroit Red Wings this evening, marking the third time these teams have met this season.

The Yotes are coming off a tough loss against the Penguins over the weekend, and have dropped their last three of four games. More importantly, the Yotes lost captain Shane Doan for an extended period of time due to a lower-body injury. One player who the Yotes were without on Saturday was defenseman Ed Jovanovski, who is expected to be back after missing a game due to illness.

Ilya Bryzgalov will make the start for Phoneix tonight and give his career numbers against the Red Wings, it could be a long night for the Russian netminder.  While Bryzgalov is 7-8-4 with a 2.76 GAA and a .922 SV% against Detroit over his career, he is 2-6-2 against the Red Wings in the Motor City, with his last two wins coming this past year.

One of the few home losses that the Red Wings have this season came via the Phoenix Coyotes back on October 28th. Netminder Jimmy Howard and the rest of the Red Wings have won three of their last four games and are returning home from a three game road trip.

The Red Wings have announced that defenseman Brian Rafalski, who has been out with a knee injury for over a month, will return to the lineup tonight.

Howard, who is 6-1-1 this season with a 2.34 GAA and a .916 SV%, missed some time early this season with back spasms, but has returned to the lineup in full force.  In four career games against the Yotes, Howard is 3-0-1 with a 2.18 GAA and a .931 SV%.

Red Wings’ center Pavel Datsyuk has collected a point in eight straight games, and has failed to record a point in just two of the team’s 12 games this season.  Defenseman and captain Nicklas Lidstrom has just one goal this season, but has thirteen assists, which ties him for second most in the NHL.