Saturday Roster/Roster Moves/etc.

[wingfan40 1]

Ansar Khan of mlive.com is reporting that the Red Wings have announced their roster for Saturday night's rematch against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto.

Of particular note are that the Red Wings are not dressing as many regular NHL players tonight, 11, as they did last night 15, and Chris Osgood will start again for Detroit before giving way to Jimmy Howard near the mid-point of the game.

As Khan points out Osgood played the entire game last night and has allowed nine goals in his last two games. I would have, in the past, been concerned about Osgood's play with the regular season fast approaching, however, his sudden turnaround in play last year when the playoffs began has changed my opinion on whether I should be concerned at this point. Of concern is the lingering effects of a groin injury to Henrik Zetterberg who is once again not in the lineup and won't play tomorrow against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He is targeting the Red Wings final preseason game against Farjestad on Wednesday for his return to the lineup.

The lineup for Saturday is as follows:

Forwards:

Ville Leino - Valtteri Filppula - Patrick Eaves

Mattias Ritola - Justin Abdelkader - Jason Williams

Johan Ryno - Evan McGrath - Kirk Maltby

Brad May - Kris Newbury - Jan Mursak

Defense:

Niklas Kronwall-Brad Stuart

Brett Lebda-Jakub Kindl

Derek Meech-Andy Delmore

Goalies

Chris Osgood

Jimmy Howard

Roster moves

The Red Wings made more roster moves on Saturday to trim down their training camp roster in advance of their trip to Sweden next week where they will play one exhibition game against Farjestad before opening the regular season with two games against the St. Louis Blues.

Forward Brad May who is on a pro tryout will report to Grand Rapids after he plays tonight against Detroit, and goaltender Jordan Pearce, defenseman Logan Pyett and forwards Cory Emmerton and Johan Ryno were also assigned to Grand Rapids. The Red Wings also placed Kris Newbury, Jeremy Williams, Evan McGrath, Andy Delmore and Doug Janik on waivers. If they are not claimed by any other team they will be assigned to Grand Rapids. Following these moves the Red Wings roster will be down 29 players.

Swedish goalie Daniel Larsson will travel to Sweden with the Red Wings as an emergency third goalie in case of injury to Osgood or Howard, and will join Grand Rapids upon his return from Sweden.

[dat's sick 1,002]

Kind of a weak lineup today, but I'm looking forward to seeing how Eaves work together with Finnishers.

[tommingthepuck96 1]

Will be a more intense game in my opinion with GR kids having more too prove and actually putting effort into the game.

[Yzerfan1999 81]

what a weak lineup.

[under_par_00 45]

Wings are going to get spanked tonight with that lineup.

[Rivalred 630]

Watch them win tonight LOL...

[evilmrt 636]

Hmm, with a more prospect-laden lineup like this, why isnt Howard starting in goal? And then my second question...why isn't Larsson starting against Farjestad?

Good to see Lidstrom getting a rest. He has nothing to prove, anyhow.

[shoe 165]

Typical everytime the wings come to town they dress a minor league team and everytime they get beat and all my friends think the leafs are soooooooooooooo great and by the time the spring rolls around they are all hiding.

[The Mule 0]

Very excited to see how Leino, Flip, and Eaves perform with all that ice-time.

[MacK_Attack 108]

Leafs lines tonight:

Niklas Hagman - Matt Stajan - Jason Blake

Alex Ponikarovsky - Mikhail Grabovski - Nikolai Kulemin

Viktor Stalberg - Tyler Bozak - Lee Stempniak

Jay Rosehill - Rickard Wallin - Colton Orr

Tomas Kaberle - Mike Komisarek

Garnet Exelby - Ian White

Carl Gunnarson - Luke Schenn

Jonas Gustavsson (1st & 2nd period)

Joey MacDonald (3rd period)

Edited September 26, 2009 by MacK_Attack

[under_par_00 45]

Strong Leafs lineup vs a prospects team for the Wings.

4-2 Leafs