The last time Detroit came to Chicago for a regular season, the line-up was DRASTICALLY different. Let's take a quick, meaningless look at the difference between the line-up from April 12 and December 20th.
I don't exactly remember the lines for that game but they probably looked something like this:
April 12, Blackhawks 3-Red Wings 0
Starters: Chelios, Cleary, Datsyuk, Ericsson, Filppula, Franzen, Holmstrom, Hudler, Kopecky, Kronwall, Lebda, Maltby, Meech, Rafalski, Samuelsson, Stuart, Zetterberg, Osgood
Out: Lidstrom, Draper, Hossa, Lilja
Players that started on April 12 and will start today: Datsyuk, Holmstrom, Lebda, Maltby, Meech, Rafalski, Stuart, and Osgood. Total of 8 including the starting goalie. Holy crap.
December 20th
Starters that didn't play last year's game: Lidstrom (scratched), Bertuzzi (in Calgary), Helm (AHL), Abdelkader (AHL), Leino (AHL), Kris Newbury (AHL), May (Toronto), Eaves (Carolina), Janik (AHL), Draper (Groin), Miller (Anaheim). Total of 11, 5 in AHL last year.
Players not in lineup today from April 12: Chelios (AHL), Cleary (Shoulder), Ericsson (Knee), Filppula (Wrist), Franzen (Knee), Hudler (KHL, comrade), Kopecky (Chicago), Kronwall (Knee), Samuelsson (Vancouver), Zetterberg (Shoulder), Lilja (Concussion). Total of 11, 7 from injury.
Out: Cleary, Ericsson, Filppula, Franzen, Kronwall, Lilja, Williams, Zetterberg. Total of 8.
Oddly enough, Detroit has as many starters out today as they had left from the last regular season game in Chicago. That's pretty ridiculous.
So pretty much the line-up, if it were built on the players that player in last year's game in Chicago (which, thankfully it is not), would look like this:
Holmstrom-Datsyuk-Maltby
Stuart-Rafalski
Extras: Lebda-Meech
Osgood