Round two

Photo by Stuart Cahill

THE GAME

Boston Bruins (31-17-7) @ Detroit Red Wings (33-16-6)

I'm headed into work early today to cut the highlight of this game for our nightly 10p ET show.  It's going to be a nice long 10-12 hours day (Overtime! And I don't mean the Versus show).  What is there to say about this rematch?  The Red Wings absolutely destroyed the Bruins (...and their fanbase) on Friday night.  Nothing like watching the fair weather B's fans  collectively jump off the bandwagon as quick as they jumped on after the brawl-filled Montreal game last week.  The die-hards are still there though and Friday was just one game.  I fully expect Boston to want some revenge and they'll play much better than they showed last game.  Babcock calling out the Wings means absolutely nothing if the team only shows up for one game and then reverts back their old habits.  Let's hope it's just like February of 2008 when the Wings went on a 1-8-2 stretch from February 7-29.  After that they finished the year 12-3-1 and went on to win Lord Stanley's Cup.

THE EXPECTED LINE-UP

Johan Franzen - Henrik Zetterberg - Todd Bertuzzi
Jiri Hudler - Pavel Datsyuk - Danny Cleary
Kris Draper - Darren Helm - Patrick Eaves
Drew Miller - Justin Abdelkader - Tomas Holmstrom

Nicklas Lidstrom - Niklas Kronwall
Johnathon Ericsson - Brian Rafalski
Jakub Kindl - Ruslan Salei

Jimmy Howard (starting)
Joey MacDonald

Injured: Valtteri Filppula (knee), Chris Osgood (groin), Brad Stuart (jaw), Mike Modano (wrist)

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

• Tim Thomas gets the start in net in his home state.  My guess is that it will take the Wings more than two shots to score two goals...or maybe not?
• According to NOHS, we might be seeing some Winter Classic sweater action tonight.  I'm a fan of the Wings' classic sweaters and the B's yellow classic sweaters.  I love the fact that Detroit doesn't have a third jersey, but I welcome this once a season. 
• It's the second game of the H2H2 pledge drive.  I've already pledged $26 thanks to Hudler's first goal of the season and $11 for Friday's game.  Today I'm pledging a $1 for every Red Wings goal, $5 for a win, an additional $5 for a shutout, and $15 if Rig fights Chara. 
• Speaking of H2H2, we're Darren McCarty days from the big event.
• And finally, living in a city full of homer Bawhston fans, it was great to watch them shut up and have absolutely no comeback for anything.  It's always, Pats are the best this, or KG is the man that, or Red Sox will win the World Series, well, it was good to see them humbled after a pure ass kicking in their own building.  My Lions might never win, the Pistons are in ownership turmoil, and the Tigers could be good or flounder again this season, but at the end of the day, the Red Wings are the model organ-i-zation in hockey and all of sports.  That's one thing I've always had over Boston fans...and I'd like to keep it that way. 

BRENDAN SMITH

The Griffins lost 2-1 in a shootout to the Lake Erie Monsters.  Smith had two shots on the night and that was it on the score sheet.  He's got 8 goals, 14 assists, and a +5 rating in 41 games played so far this season.

Let's Go Red Wings.