The Wings play their first game since the Taft administration against a desperate and struggling Blue Jackets team. The BJs have yet to win a game, despite their position relative to the salary cap and their newfound commitment to make it back to the playoffs. The Wings will have to shake off some rust and get ready for this one, their first of a back-to-back games over the weekend.
Columbus will be without James Wisniewski, who will be serving his seventh of an eight-game suspension received in the preseason for sucker-punching Cal Clutterbuck after the final horn of a game. The Wiz will be eligible to return when these teams meet again Tuesday. That will be his chance to prove that the team who doesn’t overpay for free agent pukes made a mistake in letting Columbus take the lead in chasing him down.
Detroit’s Lines are as follows:
Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Cleary
Hudler-Filppula-Franzen
Bertuzzi-Helm-Abdelkader
Miller-Emmerton-Holmstrom
Lidstrom-White
Kronwall-Stuart
Ericsson-Kindl
Columbus counters as such:
R.J. Umberger-Derick Brasssard-Rick Nash
Vinny Prospal-Antoine Vermette-Alexandre Giroux
Maksim Mayorov-Samuel Pahlsson-Derek Dorsett
Derek Mackenzie-Ryan Johansen-Cody Bass
Fedor Tyutin-Radek Martinek
Grant Clitsome (tee-hee!)-Mark Methot
Kris Russell-Aaron Johnson
Comment away and Let’s Go Red Wings!
