Time: 7:00pm ET
Place: TD Garden – Boston, MA
TV: BSDET, NESN
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket
Bruins Blog: Stanley Cup of Chowder
What a different a week makes. At this time last week the Red Wings were coming off a thrilling, come from behind 3-2 overtime victory over the Washington Capitals. Since then the Wings took the league leading Florida Panthers to overtime before losing, they had a spirited 5-4 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and followed it with a listless 3-0 loss in Montreal on Tuesday night. Tonight the Red Wings return back to the US and travel to Boston to take on a Bruins team that has not played since handing the Panthers their first loss of the season 3-2 in a shootout.
Beyond being off for four days, Boston comes into the game tonight with some very interesting splits. Of their four wins, three have come in front of the home crowd (they are 3-0 at home). In their four wins they have scored the first goal in every one of them. They only scored the first goal of the game in one of their three losses (4-1 to Florida). In their four wins they have scored three or more goals in all of them while only scoring more than one goal once in their three losses. Brad Marchand leads the team with eight points (4G, 4A), only three others…Charlie Coyle (3G, 2A), Taylor Hall (2G, 3A), David Pastrnak (2G, 3A)…have more than three points (conversely the Red Wings have eight players with at least five points, albeit the Wings have played three more games than Boston). In net the interesting things continue. Rookie Jeremy Swayman has started three games so far this season and he has struggled a bit, going 1-2 with a .893 save percentage (it appears Swayman is in line to start the game tonight). Conversely, Linus Ulmark has posted a 3-1 record and a .927 save percentage in four games.
For Detroit, returning to the US means Tyler Bertuzzi returning to the lineup. Right now there has been no update on Dylan Larkin for tonight’s game. Beyond the return of Bertuzzi what the lineup and combinations will look like is still kind of up in the air. Hopefully we will have a better handle on what they will look like at the morning skate.
Detroit right now sits two points ahead of Boston in the standings but with three more games. A win tonight could really shore up some possible waning confidence in the locker room, right the ship a bit after three tough losses, and continue to solidify the belief in the team and the fan base that this year’s Red Wings are different than the teams we have seen the last few seasons.