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The Macomb Daily' Bruce MacLeod reports from today's skate that the Red Wings are practicing with different lines. Detroit's first round series against the Predators shifts to Nashville for two games starting Monday night and it appears -- as expected -- that head coach Mike Babcock is splitting up Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg to impose matchup problems for the Predators.
NHL rules dictate that the home team has the right of last change during stoppages of play. Moving Datsyuk and Zetterberg to different lines will force Nashville head coach Barry Trotz to choose which line he wishes to commit his top checking unit to.
MacLeod reports the following line combinations:
Filppula-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Franzen-Zetterberg-Samuelsson
Hudler-Draper-Cleary
Drake-Hartigan-McCarty
Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Lilja-Chelios
A switch to the top line for Valtteri Filppula could be a boon for the young forward, as the sophomore Finn has played well on Datsyuk's wing for stretches during the regular season but has struggled with the puck over the first two games of the playoffs.
