After losing Game 3 and one of their first-line forwards in the process, the Red Wings will aim to bounce back tonight sans Justin Abdelkader and tie the series at two games apiece. Abby was suspended for two games for what was deemed an illegal hit to Toni Lydman, though some of the Wings' brass seemed to disagree with the ruling.

"I watched the hit again today. Holy mackerel. I don't know what you're going to be suspended for," Babcock said. "Now if you turn the video around and you pretend like there was contact to the head, maybe you can find something. ... I think it was shoulder to shoulder - bent knees going into a guy, exploding through him."

"It's a hard thing to talk about when it's your own teammate, but certainly Abby has no history of this," Detroit right wing Daniel Cleary said. "He's not a guy that targets people, but it was a hard hit."

Detroit will undoubtedly miss Abdelkader's physicality, but given the way the season has gone in Hockeytown, the Wings should feel right at home playing with key guys on the shelf.

Welcome to the Detroit Red Wings Game Day Blog, where you can get behind-the-scenes information, thoughts from players and staff, and up-to-date news on anything and everything Red Wings on game day.

You can watch tonight's 8:00 PM game on Fox Sports Detroit, or TSN/CNBC/RDSI for our Canadian viewers, or tune in on 97.1 The Ticket.

After Justin Abdelkader's charging major in the second period, the Ducks scored right away, which opened the flood gates to a lead the Wings could never recover from, and they eventually fell 4-0.

Thanks for tuning in to our Game Day Blog...tune in Monday when we try to even the series at 2!

Stars of the Game powered by Ram Trucks are...

1. Ryan Getzlaf (1 Goal, 1 Assist)

2. Jonas Hiller (23 SV)

3. Emerson Etem (1 Goal)

Danny DeKeyser	Darren Helm	Drew Miller	Todd Bertuzzi
DeKeyser (Thumb)	Helm (Back)	Miller (Hand)	Bertuzzi (Healthy Scratch)
Jordin Tootoo	Ian White	Carlo Colaiacovo
Tootoo (Healthy Scratch)	White (Healthy Scratch)	Colaiacovo (Healthy Scratch)

Henrik Zetterberg	Pavel Datsyuk	Justin Abdelkader
Johan Franzen	Valtteri Filppula	Daniel Cleary
Gustav Nyquist	Joakim Andersson	Damien Brunner
Patrick Eaves	Cory Emmerton	Mikael Samuelsson
Niklas Kronwall	Jonathan Ericsson
Kyle Quincey	Brendan Smith
Brian Lashoff	Jakub Kindl
Jimmy Howard

Samuelsson

Mikael Samuelsson is in tonight.

Todd Bertuzzi is likely not playing.

Bertuzzi

.

Tootoo

Jordin Tootoo will be a healthy scratch again.

Danny DeKeyser said he is out the remainder of the year due to a broken thumb.

DeKeyser

Lashoff

Brian Lashoff will take DeKeyser's spot in the lineup.

Jimmy Howard will be in net again.

Howard

.

Hiller

Jonas Hiller will likely play tendy for Anaheim for the third straight game.

Sammy worked in the point with the second Power Play unit in lieu of Kyle Quincey.

Samuelsson

Samuelsson

Sammy will take Bert's spot on fourth line with Emmerton and Eaves.

Play a Complete Game - The Red Wings had a lapse in the 3rd period of Game 2. As a result, the Ducks tied the game and made Detroit beat them in overtime. We need to play a full 60 minutes of hockey tonight to win.

Stay Out of the Box - Anaheim is 40 percent on the Power Play, good for tops in the playoffs. Given that, the best way to kill penalties is to not take any.

Fight the Fatigue - The total time on the ice in Games 1 and 2 was roughly 6 1/2 hours. The total time flying from Detroit to Anaheim and back is about 9 hours. Lots of travel through different time zones means the Wings need to be mentally tough and block out tired thoughts.

On May 4, 1997

Detroit beats Anaheim with the game-winning goal from Vyacheslav Kozlov at 1:31 of the third overtime to take a 2-0 series lead. Detroit would go on to sweep the Mighty Ducks.

After a thrilling 5-4 overtime victory in Anaheim in Game 2, the Wings flew back to Detroit with home-ice advantage in what quickly became a best-of-five series. Tonight, they'll look to take a 2-1 series lead when they play host to the Ducks at Joe Louis Arena.

Welcome to the Detroit Red Wings Game Day Blog, where you can get behind-the-scenes information, thoughts from players and staff, and up-to-date news on anything and everything Red Wings on game day.

You can watch tonight's 7:30 PM game on NBC Sports Network or Fox Sports Detroit, or TSN/RDS2 for our Canadian viewers, or tune in on 97.1 The Ticket.