Form of: desperation!
Mike Babcock decided to put Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg on the same line for tonight’s game against the New Jersey Devils. Is it a sign of desperation? I think so. But that’s not to say that the desperation is necessarily a bad thing. We’ve all figured out at this point that this team simply cannot compete on the same level as last year’s team. So why not put your best players together?
Zetterberg and Datsyuk will join their good ol’ pal Tomas Holmstrom. The trio has a combined 26 goals (10 each for Homer/Z) and a total of 62 points this season. Datsyuk and Zetterberg have the most assists on the team so they can feed Holmstrom with passes or each other. The two have an undeniable chemistry and sense for where each other is on the ice so hopefully that will work out tonight.
Other news, Jonathan Ericsson WILL play tonight after the injury that forced him to leave against Edmonton. Jakub Kindl will start again tonight as Brian Rafalski will miss the contest against his former club. Eaves is back in and May is out. Osgood will start and so will Brodeur…gee, who has the advantage there?
Lines below from Ansar Khan of MLive.com:
Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Leino-Cleary-Bertuzzi
Draper-Helm-Eaves
Miller-Abdelkader-Maltby
Lidstrom-Ericsson
Stuart-Meech
Kindl-Lebda
