The Detroit Red Wings march into TD Garden Arena this evening looking to notch a win against a heavily injured Boston Bruins team.
The Detroit Red Wings have had little or shall we say NO success in recent memory playing in Boston. In fact, they have not won a game in the last 11 contests inside the confines of TD Garden. Detroit will look to put an end the trend tonight.
The Bruins are incredibly banged up going into this game, as they were in the last meeting between these two teams played. It was a Detroit Red Wings victory at home 3-2 over the limping Bruins on November 21st.
The Bruins continue to win close hockey games while the majority of their defensemen are on the shelf, Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak have slammed the door airtight more nights than not of late for Boston.
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The lengthy list of injuries includes captain Zdeno Chara who is out with a left knee injury. Brandon Carlo who is on IR with an upper-body injury. Stand out defenseman Charlie McAvoy is also on IR with a concussion. Youngster Urho Vaakanainen is also sidelined with a concussion. Adding insult to injury, the gritty, hard-working Kevin Miller is day-to-day with Larynx.
That is five defensemen out with injury and we have yet to mention the Bruins will be missing their overall top player in Patrice Bergeron who has also been placed on injured reserve with a Sternum injury.
The lengthy list of injuries farewell for the Detroit Red Wings to finally be able to break the 11 game skid in Boston. Detroit will look to heavily worked Jimmy Howard to board up the goal and lead the Wings with his rock-steady play.
Larkin has been quiet over his last five games failing to find the back of the net more than once and only adding a single assist. Look for Dylan Larkin to push to make an impact tonight on the score sheet. He does just about everything well, often checking the opponents top center, working on the power-play and often the first man over the boards when the Wings are short-handed.
Double-A is a plus 3 on the season and I list that first because it is quite an improvement for him so far this season after being a minus 15 last year. He constantly shows his explosive skating ability often turning it into a scoring chance. He is on pace to blow out his previous career high statistics in all the scoring categories. It is safe to say he’s arrived.
Athanasiou has 11 goals, 5 helpers totaling 16 points in his first 21 games of the season. Look for he and the second line to make an impact tonight. They’ve been the best Wings line of late over the last five games. They get an opportunity to play against the oppositions second or third line and have enjoyed a lot of success in doing so of late.
The Detroit Red Wings projected lineup;
Justin Abdelkader (A) – Dylan Larkin (A) – Anthony Mantha
Andreas Athanasiou – Frans Nielsen (A) – Gustav Nyquist
Tyler Bertuzzi – Luke Glendening – Michael Rasmussen
Christoffer Ehn – Jacob de La Rose – Thomas Vanek
Niklas Kronwall (A) – Mike Green
Jonathan Ericsson – Dennis Cholowski
Healthy Scratches: Luke Witkowski, Martin Frk
Injuries: Trevor Daley (lower-body), Darren Helm (upper-body), Evgeny Svechnikov (knee)
Game Information:
- Detroit Red Wings 11-11-3 vs. Boston Bruins 14-7-4
- Time: 7:00 EST
- Location: TD Garden, Boston, Ma
- TV: Fox Sports Detroit, NESN, Fox Sports Go, NHL.TV, ESPN+
- Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
- OddsShark Odds- Fav. Boston -200
- Head to Head last 10 – Boston 8-0-1-1