Wings Still Focused on Nash

In hockey, the home team gets the last line change before a faceoff. This typically means the coach of that team will be able to pick the line-on-line matchups throughout the game.

For a team like Columbus, one that only has one really lethal line, this can be a major deal. While Rick Nash was shut down in the first two games against the Wings, the Blue Jackets get to play at home Tuesday night. That means Ken Hitchcock picks the matchup for Nash. That's a good thing, right?

The Red Wings don't think so. While Hitchcock can use the last change to keep Nash away from Henrik Zetterberg and Nicklas Lidstrom, which appeared to be the preferred matchups for the Red Wings over the first two games, there are other guys Detroit can throw at Nash.

Up front, they can use Pavel Datsyuk, last year's Selke Trophy winner as the NHL's top defensive forward, and Marian Hossa against him. They also would have no qualms about having third-line center Valtteri Filppula pitted against the power forward.

On defense, Nash might avoid Lidstrom, but playing against the hard-hitting second pairing of Brad Stuart and Niklas Kronwall won't be easy.

"We have enough people to match up that we're not very concerned," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "With Pav and Z, it's hard for you to avoid everybody. Eventually they have to get (Nash) out there."

As pointed out by Ansar Khan of MLive.com, Nash did have hat tricks in two of his eight games against Detroit. However, in the other six games, he has zero points and a minus-six.

There's little doubt that Detroit is on a mission. They had a so-so regular season by their standards, allowing a lot of goals and going through some long stretches of rough play. Over the first two games, they looked a lot like the Red Wings that won the Cup a year ago. That's bad news for the entire NHL, but especially for Columbus. With their first home playoff game coming up Tuesday, it would be super if the Blue Jackets could offer up a little hope for their fans.

Instead, it's more likely that sellout crowd will show up to watch Detroit shut the home team down. It's up to Hitchcock to put Nash and his linemates in a good position to keep that from happening.