On the Wings

… Bruce MacLeod, Ansar Khan, Helene St. James, and Ted Kulfan all report that Chris Osgood will be the starter tomorrow night against the Predators while Dominik Hasek will make his return from an aggravated hip Friday versus the Blue Jackets.

… MacLeod is the only one of the beat writers to go beyond the goalie story and report on other items of interest from practice. First of all, he reaffirms that Niklas Kronwall won’t be back Wednesday. Good to know (and to be reminded yet again of how injury prone Nik is).

He then suggests that Jiri Hudler could be a healthy scratch tomorrow, given that he’s been working with the first and second lines all week and hasn’t had reps with the fourth line, to which he was supposedly demoted Sunday. MacLeod’s suggestion is given added weight by the fact that Aaron Downey, Dallas Drake, and Matt Ellis have been the first group of forwards to represent the fourth line in drills lately, and that at the expense of Tomas Kopecky.

Assuming MacLeod’s speculation is correct, it looks like Babcock is gearing up for a physical showdown with the Predators by dumping some offense in exchange for toughness. I still think Hudler’s getting the shaft because he’s shown himself capable of playing against physical teams, but it does make sense to put the biggest and grittiest guys in there against a Nashville team that no doubt will be running and gunning for the Wings’ top line.

If Babcock does make these changes, it’ll be one of those rare instances in which the Wings throw down the gauntlet on physicality. I like it, despite the fact that I think it’s grossly unfair to Hudler.