7:00p EST, TD Garden
Boston, MA
TV: NBCSN
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket // 1270 AM CBS Sports Radio
Bruins Blog: Stanley Cup of Chowder
The last time I wrote the preview for the Red Wings they were clinging to the hope of a late playoff chase push by defeating Carolina the night before they would end up defeating the New York Rangers and moving (momentarily) to within five points of a Wild Card spot. So much has changed since then. Tomas Tatar is no longer a Red Wing (while Mike Green still is) and the Red Wings have lost three games in a row, effectively destroying even that faintest of hope for a playoff spot battle as they now sit almost as close to last place in the conference (11 points ahead of Buffalo) as a Wild Card spot (9 points behind Carolina). This does not mean there is nothing left for them to play for or us fans to root for. Case in point, tonight as they travel to Boston to take on the Boston Bruins.
Boston, behind a very stingy defense, sits in second place in the Atlantic Division. Offensively, the Bruins first line has carried the load this season with Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak all have over 20 goals on the season (Bergeron is out injured right now but Riley Nash has filled in decently in his stead). The story for Boston though has been their defense. Tuukka Rask and Anton Khudobin have save percentages around .920 while the Bruins defense has carried them to the second fewest shots against and the lowest goals against per game in the league. Unfortunately for the Bruins, Charlie McAvoy left their last game with the Montreal Canadiens and will not play.
There are going to be a lot of games to end out the season that will be tough to watch as a Wings fan and to be honest this could be one of those games. That said, I cannot personally root for my team to lose in order to potentially improve a playoff spot…especially against a team the Brad Marchand and Zdeno Chara play on.
Predicted Lineups
Detroit Red Wings
Gustav Nyquist – Henrik Zetterberg – Anthony Mantha
Tyler Bertuzzi – Dylan Larkin – Andreas Athanasiou
Darren Helm – Frans Nielsen – Justin Abdelkader
Luke Witkowski – Luke Glendening – Martin Frk
Niklas Kronwall – Trevor Daley
Xavier Ouellet – Mike Green
Danny DeKeyser – Nick Jensen
Jimmy Howard
Jared Coreau
Scratches: David Booth
Injuries: Johan Franzen (LTIR), Jonathan Ericsson
BOSTON BRUINS
Brad Marchand – Riley Nash – David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk – David Krejci – Rick Nash
Danton Heinen – David Backes – Brian Gionta
Tim Schaller – Sean Kuraly – Noel Acciari
Zdeno Chara – Brandon Carlo
Torey Krug – Kevan Miller
Nick Holden – Adam McQuaid
Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin
Injuries: Anders Bjork, Patrice Bergeron, Charlie McAvoy
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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!
