Time: 7:30 PM EST
Place: Little Caesars Arena
TV: FS-Detroit, NESN, SNO, SNE, TVAS, NHL Network
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket/1270 AM
Bruins Blog: Stanley Cup of Chowder
It’s amazing to see just how bad the Red Wings are, because so many more people are paying attention to them. If they’re, say, 7-8-2, and sitting in purgatory again, I assume the publicity is much less. But, when you are in dead last (Ottawa is technically tied with them, but Detroit has played 3 more games), are 1-11-1 your last 13 and have lost your last four by 4+ goals, you are a national story because that’s a special level of suck. They did just acquire Robby Fabbri in a low risk, high reward type move (which I love) and he should be expected to play tonight. Coming off a 5-1 loss at MSG Wednesday, the Red Wings are just hoping for something, anything to go right as they take on a red-hot Bruins team tonight.
Speaking of those Bruins, they lost in Montreal, 5-4, on Tuesday snapping a six-game win streak dating all the way back to October 19. However, they are still 11-2-2 on the year and certainly aren’t hungover from there deep playoff run a year ago. David Pastrnak is having an MVP type year so far with 15 G and 15 A in just 15 GP. The rest of the top line (Marchand and Bergeron) have combined for 44 points in 15 games as well. Tuuka Rask is also having an outstanding year as he is 7-1-1 so far with a 1.88 GAA and .936%. Although I’d be shocked if we see Rask as the norm is teams don’t use their starters against us (jee, I wonder why?) As for injuries, Jake DeBrusk (who they lost Tuesday vs. Montreal), Joakim Nordstrom and David Backes are the lineup regulars who will be out. It’s two completely different teams heading into tonight as one team is having everything go right, and the other is gasping for air. Guess who is who.
Projected Lines (Best Guess)
Red Wings
Bert-Larkin-Mantha
AA-Filppula-Fabbri
Perlini-Nielsen-Hirose
Helm-Ehn-Erne
Nemeth-Hronek
Cholowski-Green
McIlrath-Bowey
Bernier
Howard
Bruins
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
Cehlarik-Krejci-Heinen
Bjork-Coyle-Senyshyn
Wagner-Kuraly-Ritchie
Chara-Clifton
Krug-Carlo
Grzelcyk-McAvoy
Halak
Rask
