The Red Wings will be at full strength tonight against Minnesota, as Patrick Eaves will be back in the lineup.
Eaves has missed three games after getting his bell rung a week ago when he collided with Edmonton defenseman Aaron Johnson.
“I just had a bit of a sore neck, but now I’m able to go,” Eaves said.
Eaves will be back playing with Darren Helm and Kris Draper, and Dan Cleary will be with Drew Miller and Jason Williams. Pavel Datsyuk will center Tomas Holmstrom and Johan Franzen, and Henrik Zetterberg will have Todd Bertuzzi and Valtteri Filppula on the wings. Jonathan Ericsson is in on defense, leaving Brett Lebda and Derek Meech the odd ones out.
In goal, of course, it’ll be birthday boy Jimmy Howard, who celebrated his 26th birthday by getting a towel full of shaving cream in the face following the morning skate, courtesy of Kris Draper, naturally.
GREAT news!! This is a pleasant surprise as I thought he might be out a few more.
Great to have Eavesy back in the line-up, super little player, love his energy and speed. He had a nice little stretch going before he got hurt with 3 points in 4 games.
Those lines look terrific, we've suddenly got depth again!
Good news. Good to see they are pretty much up to full speed so everyone can get the chemistry thing going before the playoffs start. Assuming the Wings make the playoffs - but that's looking like a pretty safe bet right now.
Welcome back Eaves! We can finally roll 4 fully healthy lines without double shifting too much. He's definitely much more useful than Meech
I want to see consistency from the wings now until the playoffs. They need to sort out any flaws they have with their plays and make sure all four lines are firing. The Miller-Williams-Cleary line doesn't look too good, but they need to find some understanding cause we can't start shuffling the lines right now.
I thought Meech did well with Draper and Helm but Eaves is the natural fit on that line and it's another guy that can kill penalties. Glad that he'll be back tonight.
Glad Eaves is back, I've become quite the Eaves fan ever since he fought that tool Versteeg.
Without trying to sound like I'm celebrating the Wild's misfortunes too much...they are missing their best player Koivu and Barker, so that should make things a little easier.
I was always a big supporter of Eaves when he was with Ottawa. I was just wondering how he's been with you guys.
Do you think he still has offensive potential?
he is not playing that role with Wings at the moment. He looks to have a bit of offensive tools but his work ethic and discipline are what stands out for me right now.
He's been really good on PK too.... maybe though.. he could brush up his shootout move lil more
