Back In Detroit, Wings Take On Bruins Tonight

By Adam W Parks

The Wings are back in Detroit after a long, successful road trip. Tonight they will face a Boston Bruins team that has had a similar disappointing start to the season. Boston is 6-6-1 with an identical 13 point total as the Wings. Picked to be one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, the Bruins have been just mediocre thus far; a lack of goal-scoring being the obvious culprit. Injuries have slowed the scoring for Boston as Marc Savard and Milan Lucic have missed significant time, and the Bruins have only put the puck in the net three times in the last three games. Two-time NHL All-Star, reigning Vezina Trophy winner, and Flint, Michigan-native Tim Thomas is a sub-stellar 4-5 on the season. He is 0-2 in his last couple of starts, though Thomas has only given up three goals in those games. He has a 2.66 goals-against average with a .910 save percentage and one shutout on the season.

Shoot the Puck! Score the Goals!

The Wings have looked like a firing squad of late, outshooting their opponents by a total of 166 to 100 in the past four games. Detroit sent 49 pucks at Craig Anderson in Colorado, 42 in Vancouver, 45 in Edmonton, and 30 in Calgary. After getting shut down by Anderson in a 3-1 loss, the Wings were able to break out of an offensive slump by scoring 13 in the following three games. Pavel Datsyuk has helped lead the way with six points in the last five. With just two assists in his first five contests, Datsyuk returned from an undisclosed upper body injury and scored his first two goals of the season along with four assists. Henrik Zetterberg leads the Wings in shots on goal (45) and points (11), but is tied with Datsyuk with only two goals. Atop Detroit's goal-scoring leaderboard is Tomas Holmstrom (7), and the unlikely duo of Kirk Maltby and Jonathan Ericsson each have three. It should be reasonable to assume that the typical scorers will soon start scoring on a more consistent basis.

Speaking Of Ericsson...

The flu is still bugging defensemen Brian Rafalski and Ericsson and both will not play tonight against Boston. However, the also ill Niklas Kronwall is not too sick to play and will be on the ice. The hole on the blue line allows another Griffin to get his chance with the Wings. 29-year-old Doug Janik has one goal and five assists with a plus-4 rating in ten games played in Grand Rapids, and is currently tied for second in points on the team. Janik is not a green prospect, rather an up-and-down veteran with nine professional seasons. He has appeared in 161 games in the NHL playing with Buffalo, Tampa Bay, Dallas, and most recently Montreal. With the Wings thin at defense, and Kronwall still feeling effects from the flu, Janik may see plenty of ice time. He will be paired with Derek Meech, as Brett Lebda will move up to defend with Brad Stuart.

Sticking With What Has and Has Not Worked

With the exception of Ville Leino getting back in the lineup, Mike Babcock will run the same exact lines at the Bruins that he did against the Flames. Leino will replace Brad May (eye) at the left wing position on the fourth line with Justin Abdelkader and Kirk Maltby. May is still recovering from a non-serious eye injury, and Leino needs to be on the ice to get his game back on track. Once riding the waves of Valterri Filppula's second line, Leino has crashed and burned since his two goals in two games in Sweden. Perhaps a different role, such as that of crashing the net and grinding away with Abdelkader and Malts, will lead to a lucky break or two for the kid. Remember goals like this from last season? Keep an eye on that third line of Kris Draper, Darren Helm, and Patrick Eaves. The speedy trio have six points in the past four periods played. Here is what the lines should look like tonight with Chris Osgood in net:

Bertuzzi-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Cleary-Zetterberg-Williams
Draper-Helm-Eaves
Leino-Abdelkader-Maltby

Lidstrom-Kronwall
Stuart-Lebda
Meech-Janik

Missin' the Mick

You have to love Larry Murphy's continued affiliation with the the Wings off the ice on the Fox Sports Detroit Network, but he is not replacing Mickey Redmond just yet. Murph gets to call the games with Ken Daniels on the road trips, but Redmond will be back on the microphone at home against the Bruins tonight. It seems so long since we heard a good Mickeyism.

Peace.