Notes: Wings weigh in on Super Bowl

SUNRISE -- The Red Wings will get to enjoy a day off Sunday and many will be doing what everyone else is doing - watching the Super Bowl.
Like Alabama in the NCAA national championship game in college football, the New England Patriots get another chance at a trophy this year.

After a memorable comeback last year against the Atlanta Falcons, the Patriots will now take on the next challenger, the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Wings seem to be favoring the favorite, the Patriots.
"I'm a big Tom Brady fan, but I just think the New England fan base will handle it better than the Philly fan base," Dylan Larkin said. "It will be status quo, more humble, it's cool to see history."
Noted Buffalo Bills fan Jimmy Howard agreed with Larkin.
"You got to go with the greatest of all time, Tom Brady," Howard said. "Just something about him and his competitiveness, I think it's something personally that I look up to."
David Booth said he didn't really care but he was still going with the Patriots as his pick for similar reasons as his teammates.
"I think Tom Brady is a stud, I think he defies all of the odds and really is a good role model in the sense that hey, if you're not first coming out of high school, coming out of college, that you can still work hard," Booth said. "I think he dedicated his life to becoming the best and I think that's a big inspiration story. I've been a Tom Brady fan because of that.
"I like people that kind of defy the odds and aren't there based on talent alone. I think if he was based on talent, he would have been a star in high school, would have been a star in college and he kind of wasn't. He just decided he wanted to work and make the most of it. That's what I like. I like the Pats."
Wings coach Jeff Blashill didn't offer a pick, even though he said he'd be watching the game.
"If the Detroit Lions aren't playing, I really don't care," Blashill said. "I'm a football fan, for sure. I'll watch it, we'll have chips and dip and we'll get together and do all that stuff, but I'm a Lions fan."
There is always someone in the group who has to be different and in this matter, that someone is Luke Witkowski.
"Nick Foles, Tom Brady, who are you going to choose? I'm going to go with Nick Foles 100 times," Witkowski said. "I'm just kidding. Honestly, if I was betting money, I would put it on the Pats. I'd just like to see Philly win, something new."
One thing all the Wings can agree on is how much they respect what the Patriots have been able to accomplish with Brady and coach Bill Belichick.
"There's no question," Blashill said. "I've got tons of respect for what they've done organizationally. I personally think it starts with the fact that they've had the best player in the world at the most important position forever. I think this organization could probably have said that for a long period of time as well with Nick. I think it leads to just an unbelievable amount of consistency. I think winning breeds winning as well. Certainly Belichick's done a great job organizationally, what they've accomplished is really amazing."
Howard said even with injuries and other issues that crop up over the course of a season, the Patriots always find a way.
"I think it's pretty impressive," Howard said. "They're very well-coached, it doesn't matter who they got plugged into the lineup, they just seem to win."
Said Witkowski: "It's not that I don't want to see them win. What they've done is spectacular. They obviously have caught the bounces when they needed to but obviously they have something going right with the team, with the quarterback, with the coaches, everything. So to see what they've done, it's really been mainly my lifetime that I've watched football, it's been the Pats."
NYQUIST EXCELLING AGAIN: When Gustav Nyquist scored the Wings' third goal in the third period Friday night against Carolina, it was his 15th goal in his 50th game of the season.
As with many of Nyquist's goals, this one was assisted by captain Henrik Zetterberg.
"I think last year he got going and then all of a sudden, he was away for six games there," Zetterberg said, referring to Nyquist's six-game suspension. "But he's been good this year. I think he's working hard. He's playing the game the right way. (Friday night) he got rewarded with a goal."
Last season Nyquist drew some criticism when he scored just 12 goals in 76 games, even though he had 36 assists.
Blashill has said that Nyquist cannot be solely judged on his goal output.
"I think Gus, if you really take it for the season, he's been one of our best forwards, both from a chances-for production standpoint and from a compete standpoint," Blashill said. "I thought his competition level tonight was excellent. I thought that line with Zetterberg, Nyquist and (Anthony) Mantha - I thought Mantha was excellent (Friday night) - they were great against San Jose, they were great again (Friday night)."
Nyquist had a career-high 28 goals in 57 games in the 2013-14 season and had 27 in 82 games in the 2014-15 season.
MRAZEK AGAIN? Blashill declined to name a starting goaltender before the game but he could elect to go with the hot hand in Petr Mrazek again.
Mrazek has started four of the last five games and has won three of them.
He also started back-to-back games on Jan. 22-23 in New Jersey and then at home against Philadelphia, winning the first and then losing the second in overtime.
Mrazek is 2-3-2 with a 2.80 goals-against average and .912 save percentage in seven career games against the Florida Panthers.
"I think they have some real high-end guys," Blashill said. "Obviously (Aleksander) Barkov's line, (Vincent) Trocheck, (Jonathan) Huberdeau, that whole group. Evgenii Dadonov I saw at the world championships, they got some real good skating D, they're hard to forecheck. They're heavy in the O-zone, they get their D active and then they really gap well. Those are two things that we know we're going to have to do a good job against. We got to be fast out of our end and we better be ready to put pucks in behind them."
Both Roberto Luongo and James Reimer are out with lower-body injuries so the Panthers will go with Harri Sateri, who will be making his seventh career NHL start.
"I'll rely a little bit on our goalie coach," Blashill said about Sateri. "We'll go through it here today and have some keys for our guys. We'll have that in our scouting report. No matter who you play, you got to get net presence, you got to be hungry at the net like we were last night."