Causeway Crowd
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Causeway gameday! Boston Bruins look to clip the Wings

By Chad Zimmermann

BOSTON, MA - MARCH 08: Linesman Ryan Galloway (82) moves Boston Bruins left wing Brad Marchand (63) back before a face off during a regular season NHL game between the Boston Bruins and the Detroit Red Wings on March 8, 2017 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The Bruins defeated the Red Wings 6-1. (Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - MARCH 08: Linesman Ryan Galloway (82) moves Boston Bruins left wing Brad Marchand (63) back before a face off during a regular season NHL game between the Boston Bruins and the Detroit Red Wings on March 8, 2017 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The Bruins defeated the Red Wings 6-1. (Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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The Boston Bruins have been blessed with a home-heavy schedule recently.  But today, the team heads on the road to the Motor City.

This Boston Bruins team is the one that I expected to see before the season started.  The first chunk of the schedule featured some games against weaker opponents.  But the team spent the first quarter of the season bouncing back-and-forth between good play and bad play.

But after their win on Saturday against the high-powered New York Islanders, the Bruins are in their best stretch of play of the season.  The team is 8-2-0 in their last 10 games, and currently sits at 14-9-4, 32 points, 3rd in the Atlantic Division.

Boston Bruins
BOSTON, MA – DECEMBER 9: Tuukka Rask /

It’s no coincidence that the team’s solid play is coincides with the team getting (almost) fully healthy, and the resurgence of Tuukka Rask.  The team may be young but the talent level is high, and Rask is a Vezina Trophy winning goalie.  It was simply a matter of time.

The Red Wings have been basically as inconsistent as the early season Boston Bruins.  At 11-13-6, 28 points, the Wings are 6th in the Atlantic Division, and 14th in the Eastern Conference.  The Atlantic Division is, shall we say, the weaker of the two in the Eastern Conference.  Five of the Atlantic teams make up the basement of the Conference.  Detroit, one of those teams, is 1-5-4 in their last 10 games.

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Schedule

This game has been tabbed as the Wednesday Night Rivalry, and therefore, tonight’s game can be found on NBC Sports Network.  I’m hoping because it’s not a Pittsburgh game, they’ll leave Pierre McGuire at home.  I’m all set on knowing what butcher shop Dylan Larkin’s mother buys her holiday ham in Waterford Township, Michigan.

What to watch for

Adam McQuaid isn’t game ready yet, but Ryan Spooner is day-to-day and traveled with the team.  Dan Watkins did a practice report the other day, and the team was able to have five forward lines and four pairs of defensemen.  This is the healthiest the team has been all season.  Only good things should come from this.

The team announced that Rask would be starting tonight in Detroit, and Anton Khudobin would start tomorrow night in Washington.  I’m a little perplexed by that decision, considering Rask’s solid play recently and Khudobin struggled in his last outing.  Washington is clearly a superior team, so I would normally expect they would deploy their number one against them.

Next: Bruins should avoid trade market

With the forwards getting healthy, that means people that have been in the lineup a lot will have to start to sit.  It’s interesting to see where head coach Bruce Cassidy goes with those decisions, and see whether people head down to Providence if available.

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