DETROIT NEWS:

-- There's really no pre-game confirmation on any changes. But it's probably a good bet that Howard starts and that May comes in for Maltby. Kindl will come out if Rafalski can go.

-- Detroit has recently dominated New York, 10-1 since 1999.

NEW YORK NEWS:

-- Henrik Lundqvist has never beaten Detroit.

-- Wade Redden, Brandon Dubinsky, and Donald Brashear are all out with injuries.

-- Marian Gaborik is ridiculously good this season.

-- Rangers have a lot of new faces this season, and they keep changing. They just picked Erik Christensen off waivers from Anaheim. They waived he-man sized goaltender Stephen Valliquette and sent him to the AHL, and called up Chad Ochocin.. er, Johnson, who was one of the best collegiate goalies over the past few seasons.

Projected lines:

Vinny Prospal | Artem Anisimov | Marian Gaborik
Sean Avery | Chris Drury | Ryan Callahan
Chris Higgins | Erik Christensen | Ales Kotalik
Enver Lisin | Brian Boyle | P-A Parenteau

Marc Staal | Michael Roszival
Michael Del Zotto | Daniel Girardi
Ilkka Heikkenen | Matt Gilroy

Henrik Lundqvist
Chad Johnson

Spotlight on...

Artem Anisimov -- This is a deep year for Ranger rookies, and Anisimov leads the charge up front. He was drafted in the 2nd round, 2006 as a big skilled Russian in the middle of all the questions about whether or not Russian players will keep coming to North America. Well, Anisimov did, and really raised his stock as a prospect with 81 points in 80 games last season in the AHL. He scored a handful of great goals in the pre-season, like this one, and made the Rangers out of camp. He started the season on the third line, as he's also a really good defensive player, but due to injuries and slumps, finds himself centering the top line tonight.

Michael Del Zotto -- The Rangers have a ton of great young talent on the blueline, and nobody really expected Del Zotto, a 2008 first round pick, to be able to step in and contribute this quickly. He has, though, playing on the top powerplay unit with 17 points in 28 games so far. He was red hot in October, but really slowed down in November. Del Zotto was the 20th overall pick in 2008, out of Oshawa in the OHL. He averaged close to a point per game in three years in the OHL -- all of them with John Tavares, as they were even traded together from Oshawa to London. He always struck me as a no-defense type of player in the OHL, and while that's still his weakness, he's come a long way since my first viewings on him.

Matt Gilroy - A third rookie defenseman suiting up for the Rangers on a regular basis (Heikkenen is the third), Gilroy won the Hobey Baker last season as the top collegiate player. He had offers to come out of college as a junior, but stayed his senior season and won a national championship with Boston University. This past offseason he was the prize of what was a very deep group of free agent college players sought after by a number of NHL teams. There were said to be 20-25 NHL offers for him, and he chose New York's one-way contract. He played a very unique game in college, as a solid defensive player, but also somewhat of a rover when he had the puck, not at all afraid to take it all the way down the ice. He's been up and down so far this season, learning to play better positionally but still scoring four goals.

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