The Red Wings welcome their Original Six brothers the Montreal Canadiens into Joe Louis Arena tonight. Detroit has a three game winless streak going while the Canadiens have a three game win streak going. The Wings are hoping to shut down Montreal's streak and start a new one of their own.
The Red Wings will need a solid performance out of Jimmy Howard as the offense faces Carey Price at the other end of the ice. Price has had a great start to the season, winning 17 games and sporting a 1.92 GAA and is keeping Montreal above Boston in the Northeast.
Mike Babcock played around with his lines yesterday and here's what the Wings are expected to start with. Via Ansar Khan of mlive.com:
Franzen-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Hudler-Zetterberg-Cleary
Abdelkader-Filppula-Bertuzzi
Miller-Helm-Eaves
Lidstrom-Stuart
Ericsson-Rafalski
Kronwall-Salei
Howard (starting)
Here are the expected lines for Montreal, also via Khan:
Andrei Kostitsyn-Tomas Plekanec-Brian Gionta
Mike Cammalleri-Dustin Boyd-Travis Moen
Benoit Pouliot-Lars Eller-Mathieu Darche
Tom Pyatt-Jeff Halpern-Maxim Lapierre
Roman Hamrlik-Jaroslav Spacek
Hal Gill-Josh Gorges
Alexandre Picard-P.K. Subban
Carey Price
Puck drops at 7:00 PM ET, not 7:30. Comment away early folks.