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1:00p ET, TD Gardens
Boston, MA
TV: FS-D
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket // 1270 AM CBS Sports Radio
Bruins Blog: Stanley Cup of Chowder
As fans we tend to over-dramatize the importance of a single game in a season. We hand out “must wins” like candy canes from a shopping mall Santa. Today’s matchup with the Bruins could easily be one of those times.
The Red Wings come in having played better the last few games, but are still finding inconsistent results and as such find themselves eight points behind these very Bruins in the turtle race for the third automatic playoff spot from the Atlantic Division. A win in regulation brings them a little closer but more importantly a loss would drop them to ten points back (not an insurmountable hill to climb but definitely not an easy one) and could push the front office into progressing the trade talks and begin the selling.
This is very much the same Bruins team the Wings just lost to in overtime just over a week ago. They are still very dependent on their top line for scoring, led by David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand. They still have a very good blue line led by Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy. Their goalies are still putting up solid numbers.
As for the Wings, there has been one semi major change as Luke Glendening is expected to be out for at least four weeks with an upper body injury. This means that Jeff Blashill does not have his match line available to him for the foreseeable future and is likely going to puree the lines even more while he looks for combinations that work and that he likes. This also means that again recalled Tyler Bertuzzi could have a legit shot at getting some regular time in the NHL.
This is not going to be an easy game for the Wings (or likely for their fans) but if they want to realistically keep pace with the mall walker race for third in the Atlantic it is one they have to win in regulation.
Predicted Lineups
DETROIT RED WINGS
Anthony Mantha – Henrik Zetterberg – Gustav Nyquist
Tomas Tatar – Dylan Larkin – Justin Abdelkader
Tyler Bertuzzi – Frans Nielsen – Darren Helm
Martin Frk– Andreas Athanasiou – David Booth
Jonathan Ericsson – Trevor Daley
Danny DeKeyser – Mike Green
Niklas Kronwall – Nick Jensen
Jimmy Howard
Petr Mrazek
Scratches: Xavier Ouellet, Luke Witkowski
Injuries: Luke Glendening, Johan Franzen (LTIR)
BOSTON BRUINS
Brad Marchand – Patice Bergeron – David Pastranak
Danton Heinen - Sean Kuraly - David Backes
Jake Debrusk – Colby Cave - Anders Bjork
Frank Vatrano - Tim Schaller –– Noel Acciari
Zdeno Chara – Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug – Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk – Kevan Miller
Tukka Rask
Anton Khudobin
Injuries: Adam McQuiad, Ryan Spooner, Peter Cehlarik, David Krejci, Ryan Spooner, Riley Nash
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Game Day Prediction Contest
Would you like to predict the outcome of the game and potentially become internet famous? Well you're in luck, because here's your opportunity. Here's how it works.
First off, if you don't have an SBN Username, make one! We'd love to have you, plus it's much easier to track your predictions season-long. Then make your guess on the winning team, final score, and who the Red Wings player of the game will be. Enter the required information into the form below using the formats indicated. If you don't use those formats, your answers will be disregarded. All submissions are timestamped and will be accepted only until the official game start time. Only one submission per person, please. The Red Wings POTG will be determined by the collective of WiiM writers.
Each correct winning team prediction is worth 1 point. Each correct player of the game prediction is worth 3 points. Each correct final score prediction is worth 5 points. If you get all three correct, you'll receive 15 points.
Good luck!