Boston (6-6-1) at Detroit (5-4-3)

  • Game info: 7:00 pm EST Tue Nov 3, 2009
  • TV: VS., TSN

By MIKE LIPKA, STATS Writer Nov 2, 2:06 pm EST

Preview | Box Score | Recap | Highlights
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The Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings were two of the NHL’s top teams last season, but neither club has carried that level of play into 2009-10.

The Red Wings do have a solid performance to build on as they return home Tuesday night to face the Bruins, who are slumping offensively without two of their biggest stars.

Although San Jose won the Presidents’ Trophy last season, Boston and Detroit were the only other teams to top 110 points, and the Red Wings came within one win of their second straight Stanley Cup.

Injuries and inconsistency have plagued both teams in the early going, however, as the Bruins (6-6-1) are still without back-to-back victories and Detroit is having problems in net.

The Red Wings (5-4-3) hope a 2-0-1 finish to a five-game road trip will help them get on track, especially after an impressive 3-1 win over Calgary on Saturday night.

Pavel Datsyuk(notes) assisted on the winner and has eight points in five games since missing time with an upper-body injury.

“We skated well and maybe for the first time all year we were a five-man unit and made some nice plays,” coach Mike Babcock said. “I liked the goals we scored and the way we went about our business tonight.”

Detroit is still without winger Johan Franzen(notes).

After getting pulled from his previous start seven minutes in, Chris Osgood(notes) benefited from a strong defensive effort, making 20 saves and lowering his goals-against average to 3.10.

“Ozzy played real well but I thought we helped him out on a lot of the rebounds too,” defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom(notes) said. “I thought we played with a lot more desperation too.”

Backup Jimmy Howard(notes) has twice relieved Osgood and made three starts, but he has also struggled, going 1-2-1 with a 3.42 GAA.

The Bruins have had big problems in the offensive end and appear to be feeling the absence of injured top-line forwards Marc Savard(notes) and Milan Lucic(notes). Boston has three goals in its last three games, suffering a 1-0 road loss to the New York Rangers on Sunday.

“We played hard,” coach Claude Julien said. “We did everything, except right now we’re just not scoring goals.

“Until that happens, we’re going to be dealing with these types of games. It becomes frustrating for everybody.”

After finishing second in the NHL behind Detroit with 3.29 goals per game last season, the Bruins have averaged 2.38 this season - 26th in the league. Boston was 0 for 5 on the power play in New York and went 2 for 36 in the last 11 games.

Among the players the Bruins would like more production from is center David Krejci(notes), who has five points this season after breaking out for 73 in 2008-09. Krejci had a goal and an assist in Boston’s 4-1 home victory over the Red Wings on Nov. 29, the teams’ only meeting last season.

Bruins goalie Tim Thomas(notes), a native of Davison, Mich., is likely to make his second appearance in his home state. He won 6-3 in Detroit on March 11, 2007.

The Bruins went 3-0-1 in their last four visits to Joe Louis Arena. Another victory would extend the club’s trend of alternating wins and losses in its first 13 games this season.

Updated Nov 2, 2:06 pm EST
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Team Comparison

Team G W L OTL Pts Standings GF GA Road/Home
Boston 26 13 8 5 31 1st, Northeast 64 64 6-3-2 Road
Detroit 25 12 9 4 28 3rd, Central 72 72 7-4-2 Home

Notes

The Bruins won the Eastern Conference quarterfinal for their first playoff series win in 10 years. ... RW Michael Ryder, who signed as a free agent after he was a healthy scratch for all but four of the Montreal Canadiens' 12 playoff games last season, scored twice on Wednesday. He recorded 27 goals in 74 regular-season contests. ... LW Milan Lucic returned to the Bruins' lineup after serving a one-game league suspension Monday and fought with Mike Komisarek late in the second period. ... RW Byron Bitz was left out of the lineup. Bitz replaced Lucic in the lineup Monday and recorded an assist in his playoff debut.

Apr 23, 12:02 am EDT

By sweeping the Blue Jackets, the Red Wings became the first team since the 2002 Colorado Avalanche to advance past the conference quarterfinals the season after winning the Stanley Cup. Colorado made it to the conference finals in 2002 before losing to Detroit, which went on to win the championship. But the Red Wings fell to the Vancouver Canucks in the quarterfinals in 2003. Others to fail to advance were the 2004 New Jersey Devils, the 2006 Tampa Bay Lightning, the 2007 Carolina Hurricanes - who did not even qualify for the playoffs - and the 2008 Anaheim Ducks. ... Detroit enjoyed success on the power play, scoring three times on six opportunities. But it was unable to stop Columbus, which went 2-for-2 with the man advantage. ... RW Marian Hossa, who scored a pair of goals, registered a game-high seven shots.

Apr 23, 11:05 pm EDT
NHL

68 Comments

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  1. Nwaf A
    68. Posted by Nwaf A Wed Nov 4 10:13pm EST

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    good buy fatslub. hope you die.
  2. da fat man
    67. Posted by da fat man Wed Nov 4 9:59pm EST

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    DEVASTATING REPLY! Yeow, where DO you come up with them?
  3. Nwaf A
    66. Posted by Nwaf A Wed Nov 4 9:52pm EST

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    woow fatass your a tota dumass.

    get off the computer and go and do something intresting in your life laffs fan.
  4. Shawnaldo
    65. Posted by Shawnaldo Wed Nov 4 6:41pm EST

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    Boston's ship is totally sinking... Everyone keeps saying the Leafs have given them the 1st overall pick... The Leafs are improving, Boston is just getting worse... They might just get that #1 pick all on their own
  5. Spock
    64. Posted by Spock Wed Nov 4 6:01pm EST

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    Grades 10 and 11 in Edmonton. But I took some law courses at Ohio State University, so I'm used to the term "offence" as in "criminal offence". Spell Check doesn't catch that . . . . not that I use or need Spell Check.
  6. Big Al
    63. Posted by Big Al Wed Nov 4 5:53pm EST

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    Sorry about the error SPOCK. The 4th letter looked like another "O" to me. Please accept my apology. Which 2 years were you in a Canadian school?
  7. Spock
    62. Posted by Spock Wed Nov 4 5:41pm EST

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    Hey Big Al. It's Spock, not Spook. I went to school in Canada for 2 years, so I have an excuse for using offence instead of offense.
  8. Big Al
    61. Posted by Big Al Wed Nov 4 5:37pm EST

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    Is Da Fat Man a Maple Laffs fan? I could have swore that he was a Blackhawks or a Blue Jackets fan. No wonder the hatred of the wings. It's been awhile since they raised Lord Stanley's Cup in Maple Leaf Gardens or where ever they play theses days. I used to love listening to Foster Hewett's play-by-play when I was a kid. No bias there. Oh noooo. In fact I can remember when the Laffs traded half a team to get Red Kelly from Detroit. The BIG M, Frank Mahovolich, and a couple of other guys, whose names escape me. Yea, those were the days. Gordie Howe skating with the puck and Tim Horton trying to take it away from him. Tim did so well he retired, and opened up a fish fry joint.
  9. MAD FAN
    60. Posted by MAD FAN Wed Nov 4 5:25pm EST

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    Look out BLACK HAWKS--Something is breathing down your neck-OH MO--THERE CALLED THE RED WINGS.
  10. WingeyDo
    59. Posted by WingeyDo Wed Nov 4 4:52pm EST

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    Q. How many pink blubber bloggers does it take to ride a donkey?
    A. Two... one to hold the reins... while the other one (tries to) mount from the rear.
  11. Big Al
    58. Posted by Big Al Wed Nov 4 4:52pm EST

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    #56 the profiler. What does post 46 have to do with Jimmy Howard?
  12. Nwaf A
    57. Posted by Nwaf A Wed Nov 4 3:12pm EST

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    hey fatass whats the matter your dumass laffs lost and you are mad at a much much better red wing team. woow such a sore sport.

    leafs suck red wings rule.

    also fatass whats the diffrence between the red wings and the laffs.



    the red wings have a colored picture of the last time they won the stanley cup and the laffs have only a black and white picture of the last time they won theirs.
  13. DON_DOC_IN
    56. Posted by DON_DOC_IN Wed Nov 4 3:07pm EST

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    @ Joe 57..............Well I'd tweak my name a bit if I was you. I'd hate to be confused with that #29 putz, Joe. Try Mean Joe, Joey Joe Jo or even Sloppy Joe. Anything to distance yourself from #29....ha

    Thanks fatty, I hadn't seen that word in sooo long I forgot how it is spelled (not that I ever spelled it for any reason)................ : )

    3-0-1..............Not a bad sign. Not out of the woods yet, but at least on a path...........
  14. WingeyDo
    55. Posted by WingeyDo Wed Nov 4 2:57pm EST

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    OZZIE, OZZIE, OZZIE... ya baby!
  15. The Joe
    54. Posted by The Joe Wed Nov 4 2:26pm EST

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    Congrats to Ozzie getting the shutout. Please note you'll never hear me say it that often cuz I support a James Howard. Also I am not the #29 Joe, I'm the one that dislikes fatso and lives in MI. Plus it finally looks like Pav and Z have got rolling (now that they found out the season has started) and do I dare say that Mr. Demolition Man (Homer) picks up a 40+ goal season. Yep sure is looking like that. (8 goals)

    Another positive is how Dougie Janik played. Nice acquisition there by the Wings.
  16. The Profiler
    53. Posted by The Profiler Wed Nov 4 1:37pm EST

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    hey #46 as far as howard while I wish you were right jimmy is not the future goalie he was given a 1 year deal again this time as the nhl backup to prove himself but I watched him play with griffins almost once a week at one time and I just don't see it we now have Larsson who is a great goalie in GR he's had alot of experince in sweeden and is already better than jimmy he started quite a few games last year we also took a goalie in the 1st round in last years draft telling me they are losing faith in howard mccollum is currently larssons backup and has played a few games showing flashes of brilliance and abillity to make some big stops so you gotta think they are looking at daniel larsson or thomas mccollum to be the future
  17. Dutch
    52. Posted by Dutch Wed Nov 4 1:22pm EST

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    Have to count this as a good win, when you can get a shut out from Osgood and holmstrom nets his 8th goal. No rafalski and DELMORE still languishing in Grand Rapids! Not sure why the Bruins suck so bad thus far, (other than Savard being out) but certainly a fortuitous time to get them on the schedule. @52 Nwaf, hey good to see you learned how to spell "dumb", it does in fact have a 'b". I'll confess when I was in First Grade I thought Dumb was spelled "dum" as well, so we'll forgive your post on the Penguins board.
  18. The Profiler
    51. Posted by The Profiler Wed Nov 4 1:20pm EST

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    Go ozzy!! I truly belive as red wings goalies go he is one o the greatest vernon was a good net minor but when we traded him it was a good move ozzy was a great young guy and has gotten better sense he left and is one of the best goalies in the nhl. I don't like to get into whos a hall of famer or not especially when they are still active but you can't say ozzy was a benificiary of a good team because without a solid goalie you can win that many cups eddie belfour is a hall of famer matin broduer is a hall of famer how many cups do they have? not nearly as many as the OZ I think he has just as good of shot as getting in as any of the guys involved in those cup runs sure hasek did his share but osgood has had a alot of playoff wins himself.
  19. Nwaf A
    50. Posted by Nwaf A Wed Nov 4 12:25pm EST

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    oh fatass get off your computer and go and do something useful in your damn life you pest.

    and my name means " proud" what your name mean " fat skunk" .

    go get laid scumbag oh yeah i forgot your dumb to know any good pickup lines yeah so go get laid even if you have to rent a blow up doll you scumbum.
  20. Mike T
    49. Posted by Mike T Wed Nov 4 12:21pm EST

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    Lind

    I think your mixing up other sports and hockey. Basketball is the one where the refs purposely rigged games so that it could help them gamble. Baseball is the one where the 1919 World Series was purposely thrown for some cash. Hockey is the one where the closest its come to rigged games is operation slapshot.

    Nick S

    Osgood is not a HOFer. I'm sorry but there's questions whether Curtis Joseph is a Hall Of Famer, let alone Osgood. CuJo actually led his teams single handling deep into the playoffs (1993 Blues, 2002 Leafs,etc), Osgood has just been the beneficiary of playing on the Red Wings for a fair amount of years. He's had a good career, I don't doubt that. He's just no Hall Of Famer.
  21. crowebird
    48. Posted by crowebird Wed Nov 4 11:57am EST

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    huh da fat woman (see what I did there?), last time I checked this is a hockey blog, and concerning hockey, the wolverines are just fine ranked 4th
    with that said this should be a fun weekend vs. miam
  22. HotStacey
    47. Posted by HotStacey Wed Nov 4 11:48am EST

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    Pink wings? Wolverqueens? I don't understand.
  23. Lou
    46. Posted by Lou Wed Nov 4 11:07am EST

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    Praise Jesus! Raise the roof for Jesus! Shut out the Bruins for Jesus! Sweet Jesus!
  24. Big Al
    45. Posted by Big Al Wed Nov 4 10:36am EST

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    Ink a bink a bottle of ink. Thanks for the reminder. I knew a Canadian once, and you're right. They do talk funny, but they can skate backwards..
  25. detroit old timer
    44. Posted by detroit old timer Wed Nov 4 10:22am EST

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    Another strong performance from Ozzie.Sure looks like he got the message. Holmstrom scores again, I guess he has to score with those perfect set-ups from Datsyuk. Wings really starting to turn things around, they look more like a TEAM every game. Now Wings are starting to inch up in the standings.Have come from 12th to a tie for 8th in the West, over the last week.

    Big game with the Sharks Thursday. Hope Wings are over the flu by then.

    GO WINGS !!!!!
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