Wings welcome Blues for important test at the Joe

Hockey Betting Lines

03/24/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Red Wings will try to continue their surge to the playoffs tonight when they welcome the St. Louis Blues for a key battle at Joe Louis Arena.

The Red Wings are holding onto the Western Conference's eighth and final postseason berth and are currently two points ahead of Calgary. Meanwhile, the Blues, who are eight points behind Detroit, have just about run out of time in their quest for the playoffs.

Detroit has struggled against the Blues this year, dropping four of the five encounters between the clubs. The troubles began in Stockholm, Sweden, where St. Louis swept a two-game, season-opening series from the Red Wings back in October.

However, the Red Wings are 5-0-1 in their last six outings overall and come into tonight off of back-to-back victories.

Detroit last played on Monday when it posted a 3-1 home win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Henrik Zetterberg scored twice and added an assist to lead the Red Wings to victory at Joe Louis Arena -- the site of Pittsburgh's 2-1 victory in Game 7 of last year's Stanley Cup Finals.

Valtteri Filppula had a goal and an assist, while Jimmy Howard stopped 26 shots for the Red Wings, who have also won nine of their last 12 outings.

"I think we've been playing way better lately," said Detroit head coach Mike Babcock. "In order to play better and win you have to have a 60-minute effort and we had that here tonight."

Howard has started 19 straight games for the Red Wings and is expected to get his 20th in a row tonight. With a 29-15-9 record and a .924 save percentage this year, the rookie goaltender is a leading candidate for the Calder Memorial Trophy.

Detroit is 20-10-5 as the host this year and is playing the middle test of a three-game homestand tonight.

The Blues had a two-game winning streak halted Sunday evening, dropping a 3-2 decision to visiting Nashville. Patric Hornqvist and Dustin Boyd score 48 seconds apart in the third period to lift the Predators at Scottrade Center.

Carlo Colaiacovo had a goal and an assist while David Perron also lit the lamp for the Blues. Chris Mason stopped 36 shots in the loss.

"(The loss) is unacceptable. One team played to win. The other team just came to play," Mason said.

St. Louis has an excellent 22-11-4 record as the guest this year and has won four of five and six of its last eight road tests.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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