from Dana Wakiji and Art Regner of the Wings' website,

Petr Mrazek will make his third start in the last four games but Blashill said it was not because the team is trying to showcase him before the Feb. 26 trade deadline.

"Not for me, not one bit," Blashill said. "Petr's played pretty well lately, he's gotten us points and I got tons of faith in both of them and we're trying to win hockey games. We want to win tonight's game and put ourselves in a better position to be a playoff team."

Blashill said he has noticed an uptick in Mrazek's confidence of late.

"I think when you're more confident as a goalie, the puck sticks to you a little bit more, you play under control, especially him," Blashill said. "He plays under control. I think confidence is a big factor. I think he's worked hard on his game all year, going back to the summer. I think when he hasn't played, he's put himself in position to go out and play and done good work with Jeff Salajko, our goalie coach. Hopefully he can come out here and have a real strong performance for us."

more topics...