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Match-up - Detroit Red Wings (8-4-5) @ Columbus Blue Jackets (6-10-1)
Road/Home records - 2-2-3 -------------- 3-5-0
TV - FS-D, FS-O
Puck drop - 7:00 p.m. ET
Season series - 0-0
Last 10 - Red Wings: 4-3-3 ------------ Blue Jackets: 2-7-1
Projected starting goalies - Jimmy Howard vs Sergei Bobrovsky
Projected lines for the Red Wings via DailyFaceoff.com:
Gustav Nyquist - Henrik Zetterberg - Johan Franzen
Justin Abdelkader - Pavel Datsyuk - Tomas Tatar
Riley Sheahan - Darren Helm - Tomas Jurco
Drew Miller - Luke Glendening - Joakim Andersson
Niklas Kronwall - Jonathan Ericsson
Kyle Quincey - Danny DeKeyser
Brendan Smith - Brian Lashoff
Injured: Jonas Gustavsson, Stephen Weiss.
Projected lines for the Blue Jackets:
*Questionable
Brian Gibbons - Ryan Johansen* - Nick Foligno
Scott Hartnell - Boone Jenner - Cam Atkinson
Alex Wennberg - Artem Anisimov - Adam Cracknell
Dana Tyrell - Michael Chaput - Jared Boll
Jack Johnson - David Savard
Tim Erixon - James Wisniewski
Jordan Leopold - Dalton Prout
Injured: Brandon Dubinsky, Nathan Horton, Matt Calvert, Mark Letestu, Jack Skille, Ryan Murray, Fedor Tyutin, Cody Goloubef.
Game notes:
- Artem Anisimov registered a point in his first game back from injury and will center the top line if Ryan Johansen is unable to go. With some key offensive pieces still missing he'll need to contribute if the Jackets want to win consistently and move up the standings.
- Jordan Leopold played over 17 minutes in his debut with the Jackets. It's still early, but it seems like the plan is to use him on the 3rd pairing and use him occasionally on the power play. At this point in his career I think that's about all he can handle.
- Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 36-37 against the Sharks in what was his first game back from injury. He wants to be paid like one of the league's best goaltenders, and if he keeps performing like that the Jackets will be forced to do so. Through nine games he's just shy of a .920SV% despite constant lineup changes in front of him.
- Henrik Zetterberg enters tonight's game with just three points in his last seven games. Good players don't stay in slumps like that long, and with Pavel Datsyuk expected back Zetterberg could see some easier matchups.
- Detroit has a lot of young forwards and they like to skate you into the ground. A key for Columbus will be to keep their feet moving because if they get caught flat footed they'll probably end up taking a penalty trying to slow these guys down. With the way their penalty kill has struggled this year, spoon feeding Zetterberg, Datsyuk and co. power play opportunities won't end well.
- Jack Johnson has really struggled this season and, given he plays against top players on a nightly basis, that's not a good sign. He has to be much better.
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