Babcock to try rotating 3rd pairing against Atlanta

[Drake_Marcus 890]

Here's an article from m-live:

Red Wings' Mike Babcock to juggle defense pairings; Jimmy Howard will start in goal vs. Atlanta

By Ansar Khan

November 24, 2009, 2:02PM

DETROIT -- Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock plans to juggle his defense pairings more in Wednesday's game against Atlanta at Joe Louis Arena.

Babcock said he wasn't completely satisfied with the pairs in Monday's 3-1 loss at Nashville.

"I liked some of them, but I didn’t like them all,'' Babcock said after Tuesday's practice. "So what we’re going to do is have more of a floating thing, have two pairs.''

Nicklas Lidstrom and Jonathan Ericsson will continue to play together, and Brian Rafalski will be paired with Brad Stuart. They'll play against the opponent's top two lines. Then, Babcock will pair one of those players with Brett Lebda and another with Derek Meech to use against the third and fourth lines. And he'll rotate.

"So we’ll almost have an eight-man block with six players,'' Babcock said. "It’s way too complicated to explain, but it’ll be simple.’’

Andreas Lilja returned to practice after spending a few days in Vancouver with Dr. Don Grant, the chiropractor who has helped him with his headaches. Lilja said there's nothing new to report. He said he's headed in the right direction, but he still can't go headache-free for more than four to five days at a time.

Jimmy Howard, who has won four of his past five starts, will start in goal against the Thrashers.

The forward lines remained the same in practice:

Bertuzzi-Datsyuk-Holmstrom

Leino-Zetterberg-Cleary

Draper-Helm-Eaves

May-Abdelkader-Miller (Maltby working in)

Man... so Babs really doesn't trust a Meech-Lebda pairing. I wonder why.

Looks like Lidstrom and Stuart's minutes are going to jump tomorrow.

Hopefully he wakes up and puts Ericsson on the PP. I'd also drop Stuart from the PP to focus him on shutting people down on the PK. Given how bad the PK's been, it'd be nice to have the second best PK d-man focusing on the PK instead of splitting his time with the PP. Ericsson's a better choice to split PP/PK time as opposed to Stuart since Stuart is better on the PK.

I can't wrap my head around Babcock's stubborn resistance to breaking the Datsyuk line up. If he's willing to move Leino around then put him with Datsyuk and try Bertuzzi with Zetterberg. At least Bertuzzi's instinct to pass will be less painful for Zetterberg than it is for Datsyuk. I'd love to see Abdelkader get a shot at playing beside Datsyuk but Babs doesn't really have many options for the 4th line centre right now...

[Carman 387]

Interesting way to handle the D. And I'm guessing his hands are just tied with the Datsyuk line, I guess he thinks they are doing well enough for the team to win, and that he should focus on overall team defense? I don't know...

[Drake_Marcus 890]

Interesting way to handle the D. And I'm guessing his hands are just tied with the Datsyuk line, I guess he thinks they are doing well enough for the team to win, and that he should focus on overall team defense? I don't know...

It just seems odd for a guy like Babcock to keep a stagnant line together for so long. He's usually real quick to break lines up and throw new ones together. I guess the relative success of the 2nd and 3rd lines has tied his hands as much as injuries. Then again, last night he switched Miller and Leino, so that must mean he's not too focused on keeping the 2nd together.

[hokeychik22 17]

ericsson played pretty well i thought with lidstrom last game. a good pairing finally.

[skyphoenix 153]

It just seems odd for a guy like Babcock to keep a stagnant line together for so long. He's usually real quick to break lines up and throw new ones together. I guess the relative success of the 2nd and 3rd lines has tied his hands as much as injuries. Then again, last night he switched Miller and Leino, so that must mean he's not too focused on keeping the 2nd together.

That's one thing I don't understand is why he would change that line before changing the first line when at least the second line has seen SOME success. The first line is an abortion right now.

[Aussie_Wing 354]

I like Babcock but seriously, I can't understand what he's doing with the lines right now. THEY ARE NOT WORKING, TRY SOMETHING ELSE.