Red Wings vs. Blue Jackets: Updates, Lineups, Keys to the Game

Updates

I’m glad he called these “fast facts” instead of “fun facts” because that’s not fun at all.

MAYBE THEY COULD HAVE MADE IT WITH A LITTLE MORE TIME TO PLAN THE TRIP - J.J.

Lineups

Big surprise to start off:

Then kind of a decently-sized surprise in front of that:

And then no surprises up front:

I appreciate how annoyed Khan seems to be with having to report the same lines three days in a row (maybe I’m reading too much into this? - J.J.)

On the other side of the ice, our pals over at The Cannon have their lineup prediction as so:

Panarin - Dubois - Atkinson
Foligno - Wennberg - Bjorkstrand
Jenner - Dubinsky - Anderson
Duclair - Nash (not that one) - Milano

Werenski - Savard
Murray - Nutivaara
Kukan - Carlsson

Korpisalo
Bobrovsky

Keys to the Game

Start fast, then be fast in the middle, and then end fast

Ken Holland doesn’t believe in handouts, he believes in bootstraps and GRIT. The kids need to hit the ice with hot wheels but not so much that they become tire fires.

A mix of aggressive hustle energy while minimizing giveaways and bonehead penalties is what Blash and co. will be looking for from the newbies. They need to force management into full rebuild mode, nothing they do may ever be enough, but the pressure is on them to put pressure on management.

It makes perfect sense if you are Ken Holland.

The Powerplay

Is it too early to whine about the powerplay? No, it isn’t. They Wings are forever promising to turn around the powerplay and it looks like right now they’re trying to make Net Front Rasmussen a thing.

The Jackets aren’t necessarily a goon squad, but they can be, and we had so many one goal games and 3rd period tragedies last season we need to press every advantage we can get.

The Setup Man

We saw last year how well Hank, and to some extent Nyquist, nurtured Bertuzzi into becoming a permanent fixture on the team. We have some great playmakers, not as good as Hank obviously, but still able to setup idiot proof goals to help the rookies build their confidence.

We saw glimpses of the bright future ahead during preseason, but we also saw what work needs to be done to get our prospects sustaining NHL level play.

I know, I know, some of our elder statesmen make the dumbest plays without getting dinged for it. But hey, they at least sent Witter down to Grand Rapids. That’s kind of like embracing the rebuild. OH YOU THOUGHT???

(To be fair, there’s no point in calling up another rookie, having them sit on the bench, and then sending them back to GR).

Spare Key to the Season

Choosing pictures that don’t include Zetterberg :(