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Chicago Blackhawks @ Detroit Red Wings 7:30 Eastern/6:30 Central CSN Chicago/Fox Sports Detroit
THE BUZZ
The Hawks seem to be settling into a bit of a groove, playing their best hockey of the young season over the last 4 games, while the Wings get arguably underrated superstar Pavel Datsyuk back tonight.
Johnny Oduya’s ankle injury apparently wasn’t serious and he is back in the lineup tonight.
There’s still a rivalry here. Don’t kid yourselves. While there are some similarities in style, largely due to the influence of Scotty Bowman on both clubs, bad feelings linger over the 2013 playoffs and many epic battles prior.
The fact is, that tough second round series of two seasons ago, one the Wings thought they had won up 3-1, is the exception overall. The Hawks have pretty much dominated the Wings in regular season play, going 9-0-3 over the last 12 head-to-heads between the two clubs.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
CHICAGO
Smith Toews Kane Bickell Shaw Saad Versteeg Kruger Hossa Regin Richards Morin
Keith Seabrook Oduya Hjalmarsson Van Riemsdyk Rundblad
Crawford
DETROIT
Nyquist Zetterberg Franzen Abdelkader Datsyuk Jurco Tatar Sheahan Helm Miller Glendening Andersson
Kronwall Ericsson Quincey Kindl Smith DeKeyser
Howard
This should be a good game. All for now,
JJ