Tonight the Detroit Red Wings welcome back longtime captain Steve Yzerman for a matchup with his Tampa Bay Lightning tonight from the Joe (7:30PM ET, Versus).
Fabrian Brunnstrom, who’s found himself rotating back and fourth between Grand Rapids and Detroit frequently this past week, will be in the lineup tonight in place of Cory Emmerton who will be a healthy scratch.
In light of this, according to Ansar Khan of Mlive.com, Red Wings head coach has openly challenged Brunnstrom to play well enough to keep his spot in the lineup.
“Brunner’s at a stage now, he’s getting an opportunity, he’s got to grab hold of it,” Babcock said after the morning skate. “It’s like with all players in the game, you get an opportunity, if you make good on that opportunity you keep getting it and if you don’t eventually it slips away on you.
“He’s been in the league before. Actually, he was the YouTube sensation, or something like that. We were all recruiting him (in 2008). He went to Dallas, now he’s back (in the NHL) he’s earned the way to play on our team. Now he’s got to find a way to play every day. He’s at the stage of his life where he’s got to grab hold.”
Brunnstrom will play on a line with Danny Cleary and Darren Helm while Justin Abdelkader will move to the fourth line center position.
Here is the rest of tonight’s line combinations according to Khan…
Franzen-Datsyuk-Bertuzzi
Filppula-Zetterberg-Hudler
Cleary-Helm-Brunnstrom
Miller-Abdelkader-Holmstrom
Lidstrom-White
Kronwall-Ericsson
Kindl-Stuart
Howard (making his 16th consecutive start)
Conklin
Ref: Mlive.com, DetNews.com (image)
