The Red Wings will finally faceoff against the Bruins tonight at 7:30 in Boston. The two original six teams are the last to show up to the dance as all the other teams already have a game under their belts. In the lead-up to tonight’s game most analysts have already got Boston pegged to win the series, some are even calling it the easiest series to predict. While it’s certainly easy to point out the Bruins’ strong points, after all it wasn’t by accident that they finished the season with the leagues best record, to say that beating the Wings will be a walk in the park would be wildly off base.

The easiest stat to fall back on is the Wings’ dominance of the Bruins throughout the regular season. No other team picked up three wins against the black and gold, not to mention that one of those wins was a 6-1 stomping on Boston’s home ice (without Pavel Datsyuk, no less). Speed can kill a big, tough team, and the Red Wings have certainly got that and while Tuukka Rask may be a little more solid between the pipes, Howard is certainly capable of stealing a few games.

Detroit’s young guns are going to have to keep riding the wave they’ve been on. The veterans who have been there before need to not only lead the young guys in the dressing room but they need to lead by example on the ice. Now would be a great time for Johan Franzen to return to his point per game post season performances and Daniel Alfredsson needs to show how much he wants that cup.

This series could really go any way. I’m not surprised by any prediction (though I think a sweep is out of the question). I could see a long, hard-fought series that comes down to the last minutes of the last game and I could see a a five game series with the scores being closer than the series record would indicate. Everyone know how good the Bruins are and some might say the Red Wings have already shown they can beat the odds by making it into the playoffs with all the key injuries they’ve had. One thing is for sure, puck drop can’t come soon enough. Playoffs are not only the best time to be a player, it’s the best time to be a fan.

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS

RED WINGS

Franzen - Datsyuk - Abdelkader
Nyquist - Sheahan - Tatar
Jurco - Helm - Alfredsson
Miller - Glendening - Legwand

Kronwall - Smith
Quincey - DeKeyser
Kindl - Lashoff

Jimmy Howard (starting)
Jonas Gustavsson
Injuries: Weiss, Samuelsson, Cleary, Zetterberg, Ericsson

BRUINS

Lucic - Krejci - Iginla
Marchand - Bergeron - Smith
Florek - Soderberg - Eriksson
Caron - Campbell - Thornton

Chara - Hamilton
Bartkowski - Boychuk
Krug - Miller

Tuukka Rask (starting)
Chad Johnson

Injuries: Savard, McQuaid, Saidenberg, Paille, Kelly

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