Detroit Red Wings welcome St. Louis Blues at home in clash for the Western Conference's top spot - NHL Update
A battle for the top spot of the Western Conference will take place on Monday, January 23rd, 2012, at the Joe Louis Arena, as the table toppers, Detroit Red Wings take on the high flying St. Louis Blues.
The Blues are more red-hot than blue in recent games.
In their past nine games in 2012, they won eight games, losing just once, a 3-2 overtime defeat at home to Vancouver Canucks.
The Blues are currently on a four game winning streak ending a run of five straight home games 4-1 and will look to carry their brilliant form at home on the road.
The Blues who are 21-3-3 at home however, have not had a great time on the road. St. Louis’s away record stands at 8-9-3 and the Red Wings will be looking to take advantage of that statistic when both teams come face to face.
"There's no better place to test us than going to Detroit," St. Louis forward B.J. Crombeen said. "It's our last opportunity this year, and we want to make sure we do it right."
The Blues this season have not had a good record against the Red Wings having lost both of their previous two encounters but coach Ken Hitchcock believes that on Monday his team is better prepared for Detroit.
"I think we're playing better than the last time we were in Detroit," Hitchcock said. "I'm looking forward to seeing how we do in the next two games."
The Red Wings on the other hand are on a red-hot streak of their own. Detroit has won eight out of their ten games in 2012 which includes a string of 3-2 shootout victories in their last three games.
The Red Wings are currently on a six game winning streak and boast a 19-2-1 record at the Joe Louis Arena.
Detroit currently tops the Western Conference with 65 points one more than the Blues and a 32-15-1 record this season and Coach Mike Babcock has full confidence in his side to win over the visitors.
"We think we're going to win, which is a real nice thing to have," Babcock said. "But we can play better than we have, no question about it. So we don't want to get into a rut playing like this, we want to play way better."
It will be a mouth watering clash on Monday as these two inform sides collide but the Red Wings will have a slight advantage being at home and with the Blues struggles on the road may well prove Babcock’s prediction to be true.
The game will be shown live nation-wide on NBC Sports Network at 7:30pm Eastern Time.
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