The Detroit Red Wings have a score to settle with the Bruins
By Bob Heyrman
The Bruins blew out the Detroit Red Wings in the teams first meeting of the season. The Wings will look to settle the score tonight and avoid another embarrassing 8-2 loss.
The Detroit Red Wings will look to avenge the Bruins at Little Ceasars Arena on the eve of Thanksgiving. The first meeting is undoubtedly one the Detroit Red Wings fans, players and coaching staff would like to forget. The Wings had that two-game stretch where they allowed 15 goals in two games. Since then the team has performed considerably better.
This is a much different looking Bruins team. They’ve been banged up and hampered with injuries since we last met. The offensive and defensive for that matter catalyst and top center Patrice Bergeron is expected to miss this evenings contest with a rib injury.
Bergeron is having another spectacular season, not only is he a perennial Selke Trophy candidate (best defensive forward in the league), he has recorded 26 points in 19 games this season. The cherry on top is his dominance in the faceoff circle. He is 56% in the dot.
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The Boston back-end is really banged up as well, in addition to captain Zdeno Chara missing with a knee injury stand-out defender Charlie McAvoy is sidelined with a concussion. John Moore is also missing from the defense corps with a lower-body injury. Not a big name or point producer but he was logging 19:46 minutes a game. Brandon Carlo was playing 21 minutes a night as well for the Bruins, and he is also out with an upper-body injury.
All these injuries have the makings of a Detroit Red Wings victory. The Wings have lost Darren Helm for quite some time but get the services of Thomas Vanek tonight. Vanek has been out since the end of October with a lower-body injury. He is back and expected to be eased back into the lineup skating on the fourth line.
The Wings second line has been fantastic of late. AA, Neilsen, and Gus will have to keep pushing and pressuring the Bruins tonight. We know what we are going to get out of Dylan Larkin. Larks will lead this club out of the gate. He’s been getting the best out of Anthony Mantha. Abby will start on the top line and play the “grinder” role. After the top line completes its shift that second line needs to keep the pressure on.
The third line has been fun to watch of late. Although Abby will be moved up, Michael Rasmussen has been hot of late scoring in three straight. He is a big body and brings a bit more scoring touch than Abby to that line with Glendening and Bertuzzi. Look for this to be the energy line and glass rattlers.
Jimmy Howard will look to keep things rolling tonight. Statistically this season he has been a top 10 goaltender in the league. It bodes well for Ken Holland and the Detroit Red Wings if he can keep this up and remains healthy. The phone will start to ring with teams looking to add a goaltender.
The Detroit Red Wings projected lineup;
Justin Abdelkader – Dylan Larkin – Anthony Mantha
Andreas Athanasiou – Frans Nielsen – Gustav Nyquist
Michael Rasmussen – Luke Glendening – Tyler Bertuzzi
Thomas Vanek – Jacob de La Rose– Martin Frk
Dennis Cholowski – Niklas Kronwall
Jimmy Howard
Injuries; Jonathan Ericsson (day-to-day), Evgeny Svechnikov (IR-Knee)
Next. Roundtable Discussion of Jeff Blashill. dark
Game Information:
- Detroit Red Wings 9-9-2 vs. Boston Bruins 11-6-3
- Time: 7:30 EST
- Location: Little Ceasars Arena, Detroit, MI
- TV: Fox Sports Detroit plus, NESN, Fox Sports Go, NHL.TV, ESPN+
- Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
- OddsShark Odds- Fav. Bos -125
- Head to Head last 10 – Bos 9-0-1