Lineups and Shakeups For Tonight

By Adam W Parks

Watch out for some mad-chemistry from Mike Babcock tonight. In an attempt to ignite some goal-scoring, Babcock has toyed with his second and third lines, flipping centers Valterri Filppula and Kris Draper and forwards Todd Bertuzzi and Ville Leino during practice, though nothing will be concrete come game time.

Darren Helm is a healthy-scratch tonight giving Justin Abdelkader and Brad May opportunities to get back in the lineup. Helm has played well this season coming off a sprained shoulder that forced him to miss four weeks of training camp, but Babcock believes he should be getting more out of the youngster. "Helmer should be pushing for the third-line center, not battling for the fourth-line center."

Forward Patrick Eaves is also a healthy scratch, and defenseman Derek Meetch was not able to nudge Brett Lebda out of the lineup for tonight. The lines will look something like this at the beginning of the game but are sure to get mixed up if the pucks do not find their way past Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo:

Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom
Cleary-Filppula-Bertuzzi
Leino-Draper-Williams
May-Abdelkader-Maltby

Lidstrom-Kronwall
Stuart-Rafalski
Ericsson-Lebda

Peace.