Detroit Red Wings at Montréal Canadiens
The Red Wings seemed to be headed in the right direction going into the break as they were 3-1-1 in their last five games before Sochi. The Olympics did not go very well for them, though, as Henrik Zetterberg re-injured his back and will now be out at least through the end of the regular season. That comes along with the news that Pavel Datsyuk is essentially going to need the Teemu Selanne treatment down the stretch and have games off. They also had several Olympians on the Swedish side that was in the gold medal game, so they’ve only had a couple days of turn-around since returning from Sochi.
Montréal was also 3-1-1 in their last five games heading into the break and a big reason for their success had been the play of goaltender Carey Price as he allowed just seven goals against in those five games. It will not be Price in net tonight, though, as he is given the night off and Peter Budaj gets the start. Another big boost for the Habs is the return of Alex Galchenyuk to the lineup. The rookie had only played about three months before breaking his hand. He will return on a line with Lars Eller.
Detroit has a lot of players coming back late from Sochi. They will be without Henrik Zetterberg and essentially have Pavel Datsyuk playing on one leg. I don’t feel comfortable with stacking the Habs tonight because it’s still the Habs, but I do expect them to get the win. Budaj has a pretty cheap salary for a goalie so as long as you’re not expecting an elite performance, that’s a good direction to go in any format.
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Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
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(MTL) $8683 |
Max Pacioretty $11,323 |
Lars Eller (MTL) $5922 |
Danny DeKeyser |
Tomas Jurco $5337 |
