Game preview: Boston Bruins @ Detroit Red Wings

November 2, 1:00 AMBoston Bruins ExaminerMark Marino

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The Boston Bruins face the Detroit Red Wings, Tuesday night at 7pm, for their first and only meeting this season, at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. To help out with this preview, the Detroit Red Wings Examiner, Mike Mouat, has broken down the Wings for this East vs. West showdown.

The last time these two teams met was in the NHL's battle for No.1, on Nov. 29, 2008. The Bruins won that contest on the last scheduled game in the month of Nov., 4-1. In my mind, and the thoughts of many, that game solidified the Bruins as true contenders for Lord Stanley's Cup of 2008-09. The Bruins won their last two games in November, then went on to take 13 of their next 14 games after the defeating the reigning Stanley Cup Champs.

Away Team: Boston Bruins (6-6-1, 4th in Northeast - 9th in Eastern Conference)

Who's hot: The Bruins' goaltending of Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask. In the last six games, the duo have been the backbone to the B's 3-2-1 record by saving 13 of 172 shots on goal. That translates into a .924 save-percentage and under 2.20 goals-against average for the tandem. Boston has allowed 30-or-more shots on goal against in four of their last six games.

Who's not: The broken record continues: The power play. Another 0-5 performance on Sunday afternoon against the New York Rangers, the Bruins are 29th in the NHL with a whopping six power play goals in 49 attempts this year (12.2%)—just 0.04% away from the bottom-dwelling Florida Panthers. To put it in perspective on just how abysmal the Bruins are with the man-advantage: half of their power play goals came in the second game of the season—the 7-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. Boston is now just 2-for-36 in their last 11 games.

What to watch for: The penalty kill. The Bruins have successfully killed 19 of their last 21 times short-handed—13 in a row—and are now 21st in the NHL with 10-for-46 (78.8%) on the year. Up 9.1% from their recent 27th-place penalty-kill in the last six contests.

Who to watch for: Marco Sturm, he hasn't been good at all as of late. In fact, he has yet to find the back of the net in his last nine games. No. 16 was the first player mentioned when it came to filling the void of No. 81's (still not saying his name in Toronto) 36-goals from last season, and was supposed to play an integral role on the B's first power play unit. Well, as we saw in Saturday's loss to the Rangers, head coach Claude Julien demoted Sturm from the first power play unit, to the riding-the-pine with the man-advantage. Hopefully the recent events is enough to kick-start the 31-year-old's gear into place.

Unsung Hero: Vladimir Sobotka needs to be playing more than just 10:29 per game. Through six games in Black and Gold, the feisty 22-year-old has three points (all in his last four games) and an astounding 22 hits. Those 22 hits are third best on the B's squad (Chara with 33 and Steve Begin with 27 in all 13 games) while not recording a hit in Saturday's game versus Edmonton. Go figure. The third line of Sobotka, Wheeler, and Paille are deserving of a few extra shifts on the ice. And Sobotka, especially, should be rewarded with some actual playing-time on the power play.

Line Combinations: (Updated)

Marco Sturm—Patrice Bergeron—Mark Recchi
Blake Wheeler—David Krejci—Michael Ryder
Daniel Paille—Vladimir Sobotka—Brad Marchand
Trent Whitfield—Steve Begin—Shawn Thornton

Zdeno Chara—Derek Morris
Matt Hunwick—Dennis Wideman
Andrew Ference—Mark Stuart

Tim Thomas/Tuukka Rask

Injury Report: Marc Savard (broken left foot) and Milan Lucic (broken right index finger) on LTIR. Byron Bitz was a late scratch on Sunday's game against New York with a groin injury and is day-to-day. Trent Whitfield was recalled from the AHL to fill-in on the fourth line for Bitz.

Home Team: Detroit Red Wings (5-4-3, 13 points, 3rd in Central, 11th in Western Conference)

By: Mike Mouat

Who’s hot: Pavel Datsyuk has scored six points (2-4) in the last three games and appears to be regaining his old form after a very slow start that was compounded by an undisclosed upper body injury that kept him out of the lineup for two games. Darren Helm has scored three points (2-1) in his last two games after being scratched by coach Mike Babcock for underachieving in five games after returning from injury. Brad Stuart and Kris Draper have two-game point streaks currently.

Who’s not: Ville Leino was a healthy scratch in Detroit’s last game. Leino had not scored in the four games previous to his benching and is a player the team is counting on to replace some of the offense they lost over the off-season. Captain Nicklas Lidstrom is off to a slow start with just three points in 13 games, and none in the past six games. The goaltending has been shaky at best and has allowed five goals in two of the last three games. Osgood was very good against Calgary in his last start but was pulled after allowing two goals on just four shots in seven minutes against the Vancouver Canucks in his previous start. Jimmy Howard was solid in relief of Osgood in Vancouver, but then struggled in his start against the Edmonton Oilers allowing five goals on 33 shots in a 6-5 shootout loss.

What to watch for: The Red Wings have relied heavily on their powerplay to generate offense, but were just 3-for-22 (13.6%) in their last five games. Injuries have played a part in the declined productivity. On the bright side they are scoring more goals at even-strength and, as per their preference, the scoring is beginning to spread out across the roster. The Red Wings penalty killing is still an Achilles heel for this team as they allowed five shorthanded goals in 15 opportunities (66.7%) in their five-game road trip, and are one of the worst teams in the league in that category.

Who to watch for: Tomas Holmstrom has been the team’s lone consistent goal scoring threat and leads the team with seven. He has not gone two games in a row without scoring a goal this season. The only other two players with more than two goals are defenseman Jonathan Ericsson (3) and Kirk Maltby (3) who has been a healthy scratch for three games. Patrick Eaves is being moved onto the second powerplay unit because of his quick release and strong wrist shot and will have the opportunity to add to his two points in six games.

Unsung Hero: Henrik Zetterberg missed most of training camp with a sore groin and was forced to catch up physically on the fly at the start of the season. While the team’s poor play garnered a lot of attention, Zetterberg has scored 11 points in 12 games and has been held off the score sheet just four times.

Todd Bertuzzi - Pavel Datsyuk - Tomas Holmstrom
Dan Cleary - Henrik Zetterberg - Jason Williams
Darren Helm - Kris Draper - Patrick Eaves
Ville Leino - Justin Abdelkader - Kirk Maltby

Nicklas Lidstrom - Brian Rafalski
Niklas Kronwall - Brad Stuart
Jonathan Ericsson - Brett Lebda
Scratch: Derek Meech

Chris Osgood (starting)
Jimmy Howard


Injury Report: Johan Franzen had surgery to repair his torn ACL in his left knee and will be out of the lineup until the end of January at the earliest. Defenseman Andreas Lilja  remains on long-term injured reserve and is not close to returning suffering concussion like symptoms caused by a fight by Nashville’s Shea Weber in February. Valtteri Filppula broke his wrist in Edmonton on Thursday and the team found out he did not require surgery and is expected to miss six weeks. Jonathan Ericsson was a late scratch from the game on Saturday against Calgary with flu-like symptoms. If he is unable to play Derek Meech will once again be in the lineup.