The Wings played their final preseason game last night (beating up the Penguins) and trimmed their roster to 22 before heading off to Sweden.
No surprises with the final cuts. The preliminary lines are as follows:
Johan Franzen-Pavel Datsyuk-Tomas Holmstrom
Todd Bertuzzi-Henrik Zetterberg-Dan Cleary
Ville Leino-Valtteri Filppula-Jason Williams
Kris Draper-Justin Abdelkader-Patrick Eaves-Kirk Maltby
Yes, there are four players on that last line. Likely the "healthy scratch" will be among that group. Bertuzzi and Zetterberg are nursing injuries, but they both want to play on Wednesday.
On defense:
Nicklas Lidstrom-Brian Rafalski
Niklas Kronwall-Brad Stuart
Jonathan Ericsson-Brett Lebda
And Derek Meech is the odd-man out but still on the roster. The goalies are Osgood and Jimmy Howard. Watching the Wings last night, the news of roster-overhaul may be overstating things. They looked like the Wings. Yes, they lost Hudler, Hossa, and Samuelsson, but, of all the new signings, only Patrick Eaves is a true newcomer.
This season should prove interesting as the Central division might be the toughest in the West. St. Louis and Chicago improved dramatically last season. The Blackhawks believe they're primed to overtake the Wings as top team, and they might just be ready. I still think they're lacking a bit on defense. In the Pacific, Anaheim still has the great Ryan Getzlaf. San Jose, so dominant in the regular season last year, released or traded an astounding 14 players after a disappointing early playoff exit. The biggest name they let go is Jonathan Cheechoo - an awesome goal scorer four years ago, he scored a dreadful 12 last year. In his place is Dany Heatley who will instantly address any scoring issues. Calgary and Vancouver will be in the mix at the end of the year, as usual, but it'll likely come down to which team is hot at the right time.
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