Preseason Game #3

David Guralnick / The Detroit News

THE GAME

Detroit Red Wings @ Chicago Blackhawks

The Wings and Hawks will meet for the second straight night.  Last night at the Joe, the Wings won 3-2 in a game that saw goals from Jan Mursak, Tomas Holmstrom, and Henrik Zetterberg.  Jimmy Howard looked good in the first two periods and Joey McDonald played the third.  The Hawks didn't play their top players.  Expect to see them in the line-up in tonight's game. 

THE LINE-UP

Jordan Owens-Valtteri Filppula-Todd Bertuzzi
Drew Miller-Justin Abdelkader-Francis Pare
Jamie Tardif-Cory Emmerton-Jan Mursak
Tomas Tatar-Joakim Andersson-Aaron Downey

Brad Stuart-Jonathan Ericsson
Doug Janik-Brendan Smith
Jakub Kindl-Logan Pyett

Chris Osgood
Thomas McCollum

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

• Jordan Owens seems to have made a name for himself in camp this year.  Mike Babcock now knows his name.  With Johan Franzen out tonight, Owens gets a chance to play on tonight's top line with Filppula and Bertuzzi.  While Owens will not make the main roster this season, it will be interesting to see how he plays next to NHLers and against tougher competition tonight.

• Will Chris Osgood bounce back from his brutal performance in Pittsburgh?  Granted, he had to face the Pens' top line-up and will see the Hawks' best players tonight, and he hasn't played with the likes of Lidstrom, Rafalski, and Kronwall in front of him, but let's hope he can have a stronger performance tonight.

•  Jakub Kindl.  He will most likely make the main roster because of his contract situation, but it will be interesting to see how well he plays and if he can beat out Ericsson for the 6th defenseman spot.

BRENDAN SMITH

Smith made his debut wearing the Winged Wheel.  He finished the night with 19:47 in ice time and was a +2.  He had almost 3:57 minutes of power play time and 2:03 minutes on the PK.  I missed the first period of the game, but his played was described to me as "shabby" and it looked like he had some first game "jitters."  He was schooled Hawk's Smith and bailed out by Jimmy.  I can't say I'm shocked that he was shaky early on.  I would be a bit nervous too in my first professional game.  I did like that he wasn't afraid to jump in the play and try to make something happen.  He had moments where he looked really lost and he had moments that made you think 'this kid could turn out to be something special.'  I loved seeing him play next to Lidstrom.  One final note, I love Ken Kal and Paul Woods as much as anyone, but come on guys...it's Brendan, not Brandon.

UNCLE LEON'S THOUGHTS

"The game is meaningless...as almost all things preseason are...only thing that comes out of it is watching the youngsters."

NEWS OF THE DAY

According to Khan(!), Hudler will play on Sunday and The Mule will be back in the line-up on Wednesday in New York against the Rangers. 


Lets Go Red Wings.