The Detroit Red Wings will open up the 2010-2011 season tomorrow night against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the brand new Consol Energy Center!
They have decided not to throw out a full lineup, but not due to injuries or anything like that, simply to get some offense, and give some younger players a chance to prove their worth against a legitimate opponent.
The Red Wings will field the following lines on forward:
Johan Franzen (LW) – Valtteri Filppula (C) – Todd Bertuzzi (RW)
Jiri Hudler (LW) – Mike Modano (C) – Daniel Cleary (RW)
Mattias Ritola (LW) – Darren Helm (C) – Patrick Eaves (RW)
Drew Miller (LW) – Justin Abdelkader (C) – Aaron Downey (RW)
And on Defense:
Brad Stuart (LD) – Jakub Kindl (RD)
Jonathan Ericsson (LD) – Ruslan Salei (RD)
Derek Meech (LD) – Brian Lashoff (RD)
Chris Osgood (Starts first two Periods)
Thomas McCollum
It was announced that the Red Wings would actually keep Nick Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski, Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom back home in Detroit.
In small training camp notes, Babcock praised Brendan Smith that he has the ability to be a “game changer”, very high praise. He had a great camp, minus a small hick up with a slight injury at the beginning.
In the annual Red vs White game, Red won 5-2. They fielded their nearly full line up of prospects and regulars. Osgood and Howard both looked great, but the most impressive player was Brendan Smith by far. He flew all over the ice in the first period, he had three quality scoring chances and broke the game in with the first goal, which he fired by Howard low.
So, since I gave you all some good news, there’s some really bad news too:
The Red Wings pre-season opener will NOT be televised. The first game they play on TV will be against the New York Rangers on Sunday September 26th at 5:00 pm. However, it will be on the Radio at 1260 AM, it starts at 6:40 PM. It should be a good game, sadly, I’ll be at work! Enjoy it for me gang.
So, now let me soften that blow with something you’ll enjoy.
Darren Helm has said he is going to keep a close eye on Mike Modano this year, and that Modano was one of his favorite players growing up. If Helm can be half as good as Modano, we’re looking at a pretty damn good player in the making.
