Time: 7:00 Eastern
Place: TD Garden, Boston MA
TV: BSDET, NESN, SNP, SNW
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket  //  1270 AM
Bruins Blog:  Stanley Cup of Chowder

Preview

No Brad Marchand tonight.  He’s serving a three-game suspension for slew-footing Oliver Ekman-Larson in Boston’s last game.

Jake DeBrusk has also apparently asked for a trade out of Boston.

Apparently things go haywire when you don’t let that team play games.  The Wings are one point up on the Bruins in the standings, but have played five more games. If things play out by points percentage, the standings lead isn’t going to last as, by measures likely more accurate than points on any given calendar date indicate the Bruins are indeed the better team.

However, Boston hasn’t looked unbeatable or anything. They lost 5-2 to the Rangers on Friday and had to come from behind to beat the Canucks. They’ve been up and down since pasting the Wings 5-1 back on November 4th.

The Bruins still have a top five power play, though it will be interesting to see how that fares against Detroit’s recently-hot PK and without their top PP points producer The Guy With the Nose who Licks People.

I’m just asking for trouble with that line, huh?

On the Wings’ side, Filip Hronek didn’t practice with the team yesterday as he either caught Marc Staal’s non-COVID related illness or a different bug.  Blashill told the press that he anticipates Hronek will play, but Dan Renouf is still with the team if need be.  I’m guessing the starter’s crease is still Nedeljkovic’s to lose.  Detroit also announced last night that they’ve called Kyle Criscuolo up from Grand Rapids.

Not certain whose place the center will be taking or if this is just an emergency-type call-up but we’ll keep an eye on the morning skate and hopefully have some answers by today’s gameday updates.