5 players to watch when Bruins face Red Wings in primetime showdown
In a move that proves that the NHL is indeed not the NFL, it will be a nationally-televised, primetime battle of two free-falling teams Saturday night when the Bruins and Red Wings go at it on ABC.
In one corner, you have a Boston team that’s dropped 17 of their last 22 games, and with a minus-30 goal differential over that span. The Bruins are also on a seven-game winless stretch, which is their longest since a 10-game slide during the 2009-10 season. And in the other, standing across from the Bruins is a Detroit squad that’s dropped 13 of their last 18 after winning seven straight and looking like a legitimate playoff team under new head coach Todd McLellan.
Of the two, though, the Red Wings are certainly the closest to ‘alive’ in the playoff picture even with losses in four of their last five, with Detroit entering tonight’s showdown just three points back of the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Here’s a look at five players to keep an eye on in tonight’s showdown in Detroit…
Nikita Zadorov
After missing Wednesday’s game in Anaheim to attend to a family matter back in Boston, Nikita Zadorov is back with the Bruins and expected to suit up for tonight’s contest.
Speaking after Friday’s practice, Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco outright said that the Bruins needed Zadorov back, which is both a reflection on what the post-deadline Bruins are missing on their backend right now as well as Zadorov’s own in-season growth, with Zadorov looking, playing, and sounding more and more like a leader on the Black and Gold’s blue line. The Bruins could need Zadorov even more than Sacco said on Friday, too, with puckmover and fellow left-side threat Mason Lohrei considered a game-time decision for this contest due to an illness.
In two games against the Red Wings this season, Zadorov has one goal, along with six hits, two blocks, and a plus-2 rating. Another storyline to watch in this game: Any potential conflict between Zadorov and the Red Wings’ Lucas Raymond. The two had an incident when these teams last met all the way back in December, with Zadorov none too complimentary when it came to Raymond.
“I don’t like when the guy’s shaking his hand,” Zadorov said of his incident with Raymond, which included a penalty and post-penalty spat between the two, back in December. “I barely touched his hand, so I think that’s got to get out of the league. It’s a man’s league. We all get slashed. We’re all in pain. But you don’t go like this and show the referee that you get slashed. So I think it’s just a little bit disrespectful.”
Jeremy Swayman
To put all off the Bruins’ struggles of late on goaltender Jeremy Swayman would be stupid. It’s just never that simple, especially when trying to analyze the play of a goaltender playing behind this team, which has been far too careless and nonchalant in their own zone. At the same time, however, there’s no denying that Swayman is in desperate need of a ‘get right’ kind of performance.
Coming into tonight’s game with four straight losses to his name, here’s how those games have gone for Swayman: Four goals (and an early hook) on 15 shots against the Senators, four goals on 38 shots in a loss to the Lightning two nights later, five goals on 32 shots in a Mar. 20 loss to the Golden Knights, and then seven goals on 23 shots in last Sunday’s loss to the Kings. Y I K E S.
Swayman did stop 19-of-20 in a win over Detroit earlier this season, and comes into tonight’s contest with a 6-3-0 record and .910 save percentage against the Wings over the last four seasons.
Morgan Geekie
After a few nights of trying something different, the Bruins are going back to a favorite Saturday night, with Morgan Geekie slated to move back to the left of Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak. This line’s production truly speaks for itself for a B’s team that struggles to generate much of anything offensively, and Geekie himself has thrived with the Zacha-Pastrnak duo, with 26 goals on the year.
Something fun to watch here: If Geekie can find the back of the net four more times by the end of the season, he will become the first Bruins free-agent addition to score at least 30 goals in a season since Jarome Iginla accomplished that in 2013-14. Presently, Geekie is one away from matching Michael Ryder (27 goals in 2008-09) for the second-most goals by any Bruins free-agent addition.
Geekie comes into this contest with four goals and six points in his last five contests, but has zero points in six head-to-heads with the Wings since joining the Bruins in 2023.
Patrick Kane
Even at 36 years old, there’s still some magic left in the stick of the Red Wings’ Patrick Kane.
In the midst of what feels like his most tangibly impactful season since a 92-point campaign in Chicago in 2021-22, Kane comes into tonight’s contest as Detroit’s hottest scorer since the 4 Nations Face-Off (and since Team USA left him off their roster), with seven goals and 20 points in his last 17 games. The points have come in bunches for Kane over that segment, too, with four efforts of at least three points within that 17-game span, including a five-point outing against the Sabres earlier this month.
That said, Kane has gone five straight games without a point against the Bruins (a slump dating back to his Chicago days), and it’s been 10 straight games against Boston without a goal for Kane, with his last goal against the Bruins coming all the way back in Mar. 2018.
Lucas Raymond
There’s a couple of notable Bruin Killers on the Detroit roster.
But the name to watch here is indeed Red Wings winger Lucas Raymond.
Entering play with five goals and 11 points in 13 career showdowns with the Bruins, Raymond has been especially effective against Boston over the last two seasons, with three goals in two meetings this season, and four goals and seven points in six head-to-heads over the last two seasons.
Raymond has also been a dramatically better player on home ice this season, with 15 goals and 46 points in 37 games on Detroit ice this season compared to 26 points in 35 road contests.
