Preseason Game Preview: Red Wings at Bruins

The Red Wings visit the Boston Bruins tonight at 7PM and this game will be broadcast of FSD!

The Red Wings may not have to worry about trading away any players in order to be roster compliant for the start of the 2013 season. Injuries and tenderness abounds already. Franzen is out with a sore hip flexor, Brendan Smith and Daniel Alfredsson are out with sore groins, Patrick Eaves was helped off the ice in practice this morning and being sent to the hospital for evaluation (lower body injury) after a collision with a teammate in front of the net, Helm still isn’t able to practice (though he did skate alone briefly before drills today), and Samuelsson was said to be “nursing an injury” (heh, boob jokes), but will play tonight anyway.

*deep breath*

Because it’s only the preseason, there’s no reason not to let Franzen, Smith, and Alfredsson rest, so I’m not too concerned about their “injuries”. I really hope Eaves is ok.

Yesterday the Red Wings sent Andreas Athanasiou, Marc McNulty, and Anthony Mantha back to their respective junior teams, and Barclay Goodrow returned to captain the North Bay Battalion for another season.

The lineup tonight will probably look like this:

Babcock is keeping Zetterberg, Datsyuk, and Abdelkader together because they’re clicking and producing results. I like it.

The second line is a little hodgepodge, with Tatar taking Alfredsson’s spot and Cleary taking Mule’s spot. I do find it slightly amusing to have Cleary and Tatar on the same line. Maybe they’ll go at it?

Nyquist and Andersson are reunited and I’m pretty sure they’re both happy about it. They played together in Grand Rapids, and spent much of their time together on the Wings last year, and they play very well together.

David McIntyre has a Griffins only contract, and will get in an exhibition game before most likely being sent to Grand Rapids for their training camp which starts on Monday.

I like these defense pairings a lot. With DeKeyser and Kindle both played very well, and meshing nicely as a pair, hopefully Kronwall and Ericsson can play under 25 and 27 minutes respectively this time.

Jimmy Howard will play the first two periods, and McCollum will play the third.

The Bruins lineup should look like this:

Malcolm Subban is slated to play the entire game, and Gregory Campbell will return tonight for his first game since June 5th when he suffering a broken leg in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Let’s Go Red Wings!!!