Eaves out, Leino in

Reportedly, Patrick Eaves is out for tonight's game against the Avs from flu symptoms. Brian Rafalski just got over the flu and  the shared lockerroom probably lead to Eaves getting it too. This means Babcock will be forced to reinsert Ville Leino into the line-up.

But that doesn't mean that Leino is going to be anywhere in the top lines. In fact, Babcock tentatively has Leino playing on the fourth line with Brad May and Justin Abdelkader. An interesting move considering Leino recently more or less said that he can't grind like other players on the team because he is only a scorer. 

Follow the jump for the impact of the sickness and the rest of the lines.

Pretty much, Patrick Eaves being sick is bad bad bad for this Red Wings team heading into the contest tonight. They need guys that are able of scoring and lately Eaves has shown more potential than Leino has. But maybe this could be a turning point for Leino as he's sat out the past few games and may see that he needs to refocus himself on offense and get back to the basics.

Making his third straight start, Mattias Ritola will stay on the second line with Valtteri Filppula and Drew Miller. That second line has looked pretty good in the last two games and Ritola may be a step away from proving his value. Maltby is expected to start on the third line with Helm and Draper and the top line remains the same with Bertuzzi-Datsyuk-Holmstrom.

Also, Craig Anderson and Jimmy Howard have both been confirmed as the starters for tonight's game so we should some pretty good goaltending.

Lines (via MLive):

Bertuzzi-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Ritola-Filppula-Miller
Draper-Helm-Maltby
May-Abdelkader-Leino

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Lebda-Stuart
Meech-Janik