SACRE BLEU! Red Wings va Francais!
NOW, WHERE WERE WE?
The Wings and Canadiens last met on November 26, 2008. The Habs came out on top of that one, 3-1, but the Wings were without the services of Danny Cleary (eye) and Tomas Holmstrom (back). Johan Franzen was the lone goal scorer for the Red Wings and Ty Conklin took the loss.
WHAT’S HAPPENED SINCE THEN?
Montreal just squeaked into the post-season, needing various tie-breakers with the Panthers to qualify for the tourney, where they lasted exactly four games. They had more turnover than any other team this summer, and are (SHOCKINGLY) struggling to find their chemistry as a unit in this, their second 100th Anniversary year. Somehow. IN are Scott Gomez, Mike Cammalleri, Hal Gill, Brian Gionta, Jaroslav Spacek, Paul Mara, and Marc-Andre Bergeron. OUT are Chris Higgins, Ryan McDonagh, Doug Janik (hey!), Mike Komisarek, Alexei Kovalev, Saku Koivu, Tom Kostopoulos, Mathieu Schneider, Alex Tanguay, Bobby Lang, Patrice Bergeron, and Francis Bouillon.
OH, HI AGAIN
Add to the list of departed Habs Mathieu Dandenault, who – had he been resigned – would have been the lone former Red Wing this season since Schneider and Lang left town.
MEMBA ME?!
Having Doug Janik is like having our very own Mike Sillinger. Again.
DID YOU KNOW…
Henrik Zetterberg is on a 5-game point streak, during which he has 11 points.
THEIR LAST GAMES
–Detroit played last night, losing to the Panthers 2-1 in overtime.
–Montreal also played last night, defeating the Capitals 3-2 in DC.
RECORDS
Detroit Red Wings :: 10-6-4 (3rd in Central, 8th in West) :: 3-4-2 on the road
Quebec State University :: 11-11-0 (4th in Northeast, 12th in East) :: 6-5-0 at home
EXPECTED LINEUP
Jimmy Howard is expected to get the call tonight, the second of back-to-back nights. I haven’t heard about any other lineup changes, so it looks exactly like last night’s game, except the goaltending change.
Bertuzzi — Datsyuk — Holmstrom
Cleary — Zetterberg — Leino
Draper — Helm — Eaves
Miller — Abdelkader — Maltby
Lidstrom — Rafalski
Kronwall — Stuart
Ericsson — Lebda
Howard
Osgood
Scratches:
Derek “TweetSuite” Meech
Brad “LaRue” May
Injured:
Andreas “Three Train” Lilja
Johan “Team MVP” Franzen
Valtteri “Santa Hat” Filppula
Jason “Loves Columbus” Williams
QUICK THOUGHTS
1. Both teams played last night, but the Canadiens won – so they’ll probably be coming in feeling better than the Red Wings.
2. Jimmy Howard might want to come out and show he’s deserving of starting a regular game. Don’t be surprised to see him try to take advantage of his opportunities a little bit more now that Chris Osgood is back.
3. The third line was moving last night, and here’s hoping they still have some juice left in those legs. And they can convert on their various offensive chances.
4. Both teams are ravaged with injuries, so no excuses.
2. Jimmy Howard might want to come out and show he’s deserving of starting a regular game. Don’t be surprised to see him try to take advantage of his opportunities a little bit more now that Chris Osgood is back.
3. The third line was moving last night, and here’s hoping they still have some juice left in those legs. And they can convert on their various offensive chances.
4. Both teams are ravaged with injuries, so no excuses.
WHAT WE LEARNED vs. the Panthers
67 shots directed toward the net isn’t enough, apparently.
67 shots directed toward the net isn’t enough, apparently.
CANADIEN WE COVET
I like Mike Cammalleri, and at the risk of enraging the “grit groupies” who won’t like that I picked a 5-9er, I’d like to remind them that he scored 82 points in 81 games last season.
I'd take Cammalleri if we could afford him. I'd put Andrei Markov on that list too, just because I miss having a defenseman named Markov on the Wings' blue line.
Think if we broke Lebda's legs, that'd sweeten the deal in a trade? No? Ok, I really don't know how this works.
Man, wouldn't it be great if Mafia stylings increased trade value? I've got Todd Bertuzzi's skates all sized up for cement inserts.
And yes, I miss Markov, too. That crazy, smoking bastard always looked like he was going to kill someone. The real kind, not the Kronwall kind.