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UPDATE The Detroit Red Wings announced today at 12:40pm ET:
It’s a return to yesteryear and one of the league’s most historic and geographical rivalries as the Detroit Red Wings head up the 401 (by air of course in this day and age) to face the Toronto Maple Leafs to commence a weekend home-and home series with the Leafs.
The Wings are looking to rebound from a disappointing effort Wednesday night at home against the Boston Bruins where only the fine work of goaltender
Jimmy Howard allowed the Red Wings to grab a point in their 3-2 shootout loss. Despite his fantastic 37 save effort on Wednesday night, the contest concluded in frustrating fashion for Howard, whose record in the shootout now sits at 4-11 dating back to the lockout-shortened 2012-13 regular season.
Nevertheless, Howard will once again the start in goal for the Red Wings tonight in Toronto after the Bruins performance further validated the praise Coach
Mike Babcock has been throwing Howard’s way since midway through training camp. Ex-Leaf
Jonas Gustavsson will make his season debut Saturday night in the return leg at the Joe Louis Arena.
As expected with the Red Wings and their popular head coach heading to the capital of the hockey world’s media market, plenty of talk leading up to tonight’s affair centers the potential future of
Mike Babcock. Although I haven’t discussed my thoughts on what his future holds, I firmly believe Babcock is purely attempting to negotiate what he believes he deserves from GM
Ken Holland. Using his pending “free agency” to his advantage and with assistance from the overzealous Maple Leaf media, Babcock is determined to continue to get paid handsomely to match his reputation as one of the best head coaches in the game.
Realistically, GM
Ken Holland is in a good situation. He wants Babcock to return, but Holland has a contingency plan already in place if the head coach decides to move elsewhere.
Jeff Blashill, a.k.a. "Babcock-light", was re-signed to a multi-year deal with Grand Rapids knowing full well that the Detroit position is his if Babcock leaves the Red Wings.
However, given the strong working relationship the two men share, I don’t envision a scenario where Babcock wants to leave Detroit and the pipeline of strong prospects on their team and within their system for more dollars to deal with more headaches and an unknown working situation with the likes of
Brendan Shanahan and
Dave Nonis.
In the interim, we get a media circus every time the Red Wings head to Toronto until a new contract is announced.
Here are tonight's expected forward lines and pairings:
DETROIT RED WINGS
Nyquist – Zetterberg – Franzen
Tatar – Sheahan - Jurco
Abdelkader – Helm - Nestrasil
Miller – Glendening – Andersson
Weiss (scratch)
Cleary (scratch)
Kronwall - Ericsson
DeKeyser – Smith
Quincey – Kindl
Howard
(Gustavsson)
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
Van Riemsdyk - Bozak - Kessel
Winnik - Kadri - Lupul (Kozun)
Komarov - Santorelli - Clarkson
Ashton - Holland - Kozun (Panik)
Phaneuf - Franson
Rielly - Gardiner
Percy - Polak
Robidas (scratch)
Frattin (scratch)
Reimer
(Bernier)
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Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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