Canucks-Red Wings Preview

VIDEO PLAYLIST

• Canucks Top Red Wings, 4-3, In OT

Regular Season Matchup
	W-L-OT	HOME	ROAD	DIV	CONF
VAN	45-27-10	24-12-5	21-15-5	15-6-3	35-21-8
DET	51-21-10	27-9-5	24-12-5	14-8-2	39-16-9
· Complete Standings

Team Stat Comparison
243	Goals	289
213	Goals Against	240
67	Power Play Goals	90
69	Power Play Goals Allowed	71
7	Shorthanded Goals	6
5	Shorthanded Goals Allowed	4
1351	Penalty Minutes	824
16	Average Penalty Minutes	10

Goalie Breakdown
	GOALIE	GP	W	TGA	GAA	SO	SV	SV%
	Roberto Luongo	54	33	124	2.34	9	1418	.920
	Curtis Sanford	19	7	42	2.59	1	406	.906
	Jason LaBarbera	9	3	20	2.66	0	215	.915
	Cory Schneider	8	2	20	3.38	0	142	.877
	Chris Osgood	46	26	137	3.09	2	1071	.887
	Ty Conklin	40	25	94	2.51	6	939	.909
	Jimmy Howard	1	0	4	4.10	0	24	.857

Team Stat Leaders
G	Daniel Sedin 31	Marian Hossa 40
A	Henrik Sedin 60	Pavel Datsyuk 65
PTS	Henrik Sedin 82	Pavel Datsyuk 97
PIM	Shane O'Brien 196	Andreas Lilja 66
SOG	Daniel Sedin 285	Henrik Zetterberg 309

After spending a day off at the White House, the Detroit Red Wings can re-focus on defending the Stanley Cup championship that earned them that visit.

The Red Wings look for their third straight victory when they host the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night in the teams' first meeting of the season.

Detroit (2-1-0) was honored by President Bush on Tuesday for winning its fifth Stanley Cup in 12 seasons in 2007-08, and the Wings brought two straight wins into their White House visit as they look to win back-to-back titles for the second time in that span. Detroit's first two championships during this run came in 1997 and '98.

"You guys may be back next year, but not me," Bush said.

Since dropping their season opener at home Oct. 9, the Wings have won consecutive road games, defeating Carolina 3-1 on Monday. Tomas Holmstrom scored the go-ahead goal in the second period, his third goal of the season, and Ty Conklin finished with 27 saves in his Red Wings debut.

Conklin, signed as a free agent in July to give Detroit depth in net, sat the first two games behind Chris Osgood before turning in the solid performance Monday.

"We wanted to get him in early," coach Mike Babcock said. "We didn't want to wait because he's the new guy here to our program."

Nicklas Lidstrom had a first-period goal for Detroit, and Henrik Zetterberg added an empty-net score in the final seconds. The Wings, who led the Western Conference with 257 goals in 2007-08, have just eight this season.

Detroit signed star forward Marian Hossa in the offseason in a bid to further upgrade the offense, but he has yet to record a goal this season. Hossa hasn't been overly productive against Vancouver in his career, with three goals and two assists in 12 games.

One player who has been, however, is Osgood, who's expected to return to the net Thursday. The veteran is 15-4-4 with a 2.40 goals-against average and one shutout versus the Canucks, making 29 saves to win 3-2 on Oct. 28 in his most recent matchup with them.

The Wings will be taking on a Canucks club that failed to win its third straight to open the season Monday, falling 5-1 at Washington. Despite holding Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin without a point, Vancouver (2-1-0) was dominated throughout, getting outshot 35-10 en route to the lopsided loss.

"It's tough to play when they're on offense the whole time," Vancouver center Henrik Sedin said. "You have to defend, defend, defend."

Mike Green scored on the Canucks' first shot on goal -- but that power-play tally came 16:11 into the game. Vancouver was outshot 10-2 in the first period and 15-1 in the second, and Canucks coach Alain Vigneault pulled Roberto Luongo before the start of the final period after he allowed five goals on 25 shots.

"I don't have any answers for what happened tonight," said Luongo, who has a 2.39 GAA in 14 games against Detroit and is likely to return to the net Thursday.

Vancouver will be playing the third game on a six-game road trip.

The Red Wings won the 2007-08 season series with the Canucks 3-1-0, taking both games at Joe Louis Arena. All three wins came by a score of 3-2.