Wings look to avoid repeat of 2003 first-round series

“It’s going to be a tough, grinding series,” said Detroit’s Darren McCarty.

Perennially one of the NHL’s top teams, the Red Wings finished with a league-leading 109 points (48-21-11-2) to win the Presidents’ Trophy. The Predators, in their sixth season, are in the postseason for the first time after grabbing the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Nashville’s 38-29-11-4 record produced 91 points.

The statistical difference between the two teams means little to Nashville forward Scott Walker.

“We’re still going to try our best,” he said. “We’re just not going to throw our stuff on the ice and leave it at that. We know what we have to do. I still like our chances to surprise them.”

That confidence is based on the teams’ head-to-head play.

The Predators have played the Red Wings tough since Nashville entered the league. That continued this season as the Predators posted a 3-2-0-1 record in six games. Nashville took seven points to Detroit’s six.

“They play so sound defensively and they just work and work and keep coming at you,” said Red Wings’ goaltender Manny Legace.

While Steve Sullivan (24 points and 49 assists for 73 points), who was obtained from Chicago before the trade deadline in March, and Walker (25-42-67) are the Predators’ biggest offensive producers, the main reason they are in the playoffs is goaltender Tomas Vokoun.

Vokoun played in 73 of the team’s 82 games with a 2.53 goals-against average and .909 save percentage.

“He’s not flashy,” said Detroit coach Dave Lewis.

“He’s wrong-handed,” Lewis said of Vokoun’s style of catching with his right hand instead of his left. “That fools guys sometimes. He seems to be big in net.”

Though it appears Legace will start Wednesday night’s Game 1 at Joe Louis Arena, Lewis hadn’t made an official announcement Monday.

Legace, 23-10-5 with a 2.12 GAA and .920 save percentage, started six of the final seven regular-season games. Curtis Joseph, who has been bothered by an injured ankle, hasn’t started since March 20 and hasn’t played at all since March 21.

Joseph, 16-10-3 with a 2.39 GAA and .909 save percentage, went through a full practice on Monday for the first time since he played. He pronounced himself ready to go.

“No word, not yet,” Lewis said Monday. “Probably tomorrow. I figure that will be the day.”

And after a season filled with an unbelievable amount of injuries, Detroit is almost totally healthy.

Every player except for center Mark Mowers (foot) practiced on Monday and even defenseman Jason Woolley, who missed the final 27 games of the season because of a small fracture in one of his vertebrae, says he feels well enough to play Wednesday night.

Lewis said Woolley probably wouldn’t play until Saturday’s Game 2.