7:30p ET, Bell Centre
Montréal, Québec
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Canadiens Blogs: Habs Eyes On The Prize
The Wings are headed across the boarder to take on the top team in the NHL. No, I haven’t been sniffing these dry erase markers I found in my desk. The Canadiens are 5-1-0 with 10 points on the season after beating the Crapalanche on Saturday night when P.K. Subban did this. P.K. must have been fueled by farts that he uses to assault opposing goaltenders; I hope Jimmy brought his gas mask with him. The Wings are 3-1-1 with 7 points in their goody bag and there’s good chance they’ll be getting the services of Pavel Datsyuk back tonight. Pavel sounds probable for the game tonight, but the Wings won’t have to make any roster cuts because Johan Franzen is unfortunately still out with a sore groin (my computer auto completes the words “out with a” with “groin”) and the Wings have put him on short term IR. Datsyuk said he won’t know for sure until after morning skate if he’s playing, but indications are good.
I’m picking the Wings to win tonight because I feel confident that at least half our team could beat Tinordi in a hula hoop competition and Mike Babcock can beat these chumps in a staring contest any day.
The Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Henrik Zetterberg | Pavel Datsyuk | Justin Abdelkader |
| Gustav Nyquist | Riley Sheahan | Tomas Tatar |
| Tomas Jurco | Darren Helm | Andrej Nestrasil |
| Joakim Andersson | Luke Glendening | Drew Miller |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Brendan Smith | Danny DeKeyser |
| Kyle Quincey | Jakub Kindl |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Jonas Gustavsson |
Scratches: Daniel Cleary, Stephen Weiss & Brian Lashoff
Injuries: Johan Franzen (groin)
Forwards
| Max Pacioretty | David Desharnais | Brendan Gallagher |
| Alex Galchenyuk | Tomas Plekanec | P.A. Parenteau |
| Rene Bourque | Lars Eller | Jiri Sekac/Dale Weise |
| Travis Moen | Manny Malhotra | Brandon Prust |
Defensemen
| Alexei Emelin | P.K. Subban |
| Andrei Markov | Tom Gilbert |
| Mike Weaver | Jarred Tinordi |
Goaltenders
| Carey Price (starting) |
| Dustin Tokarski |
Bullets of Knowledge
- The Red Wings are 203-273-96-0 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time in the regular season against the Canadiens.
- The Habs once had day jobs as Waldo stunt doubles in the Where’s Waldo books, just to confuse people.
- Jimmy Howard is 3-2-0 with a 3.13 GAA and .880 SV% in 5 starts against the Canadiens.
- Henrik Zetterberg is off to a hot start with 6 points in 5 games, but did you know he likes playing against the Habs? In 9 career games against them, Zetterheart has 8 points. /
