Ozzie has the sniffles

On By mpetrella
oh hai lulz!

Probably from all those pucks that have been whizzing by him all season.

But anyway, neither Osgood nor Kirk Maltby will be available for tonight’s game, according to the Detroit News, as both are suffering through the flu. As a result, new acquisition Drew Miller will make his Red Wings debut, and the team has called up Daniel Larsson to back-up Jimmy Howard, who will make his second start is any many days. The team’s transformation into the Detroit Red Griffins is nearly complete.

Seems to me this would have been a great opportunity to see what Larsson has, the way that Jimmy Howard was given a random game once in a while three seasons ago. But, this team is in a different place in standings than any of the other recent squads, so maybe its not the best time for experiments.

EXPECTED LINEUP
Bertuzzi — Datsyuk — Holmstrom
Leino — Zetterberg — Cleary
Draper — Helm — Eaves
May — Abdelkader — Miller

Lidstrom — Rafalski
Kronwall — Stuart
Ericsson — Lebda

Howard (starts)
Larsson

QUICK THOUGHTS
1. It’d be great if seven different Red Wings got their fourth goal tonight.
2. Leino needs to play with the confidence he had last night after scoring his goal. He truly is the best candidate to take over secondary scoring, he’s just gotta start … ya know … scoring.
3. That said, secondary scoring infers that there is primary scoring, which means Z and Datsyuk have to start ripping up the scoresheet once in a while, too.
4. Draper, Helm, Eaves…keep doing what you’re doing. That is all.
5. Brad May should NOT fight Tanner Glass or Kevin Bieksa tonight. Do enforcers still keep the flies off if they go down easier than Andrew Golota? Yeah, I said it, Golota, come get me.


WHAT WE LEARNED vs. the Blue Jackets
We learned that the off-season exodus of scoring can’t be used an excuse, as the boys peppered a (snicker, laugh, guffaw) division-leading Blue Jackets team to the tune of nine goals.

Jimmy Howard played admirably but still has trouble controlling rebounds. But the defensemen are starting to learn that, too, and are helping out a bit more.

CANUCK WE COVET
Ryan Kesler. He’s from Livonia. I guess that’s enough.