Youth will be Served along Detroit Blueline

This might be what Mike Babcock is thinking with news that Brian Rafalski will be out of the lineup with a minor injury:





With a little under two weeks until the trade deadline, it probably makes sense to bring up some of the young d-men in Grand Rapids and see how they look playing in the big time - well, I guess big time might not be the best way to describe playing a Columbus team that is starting to look more and more like it will continue it’s streak of having never made the playoffs.

Kyle Quincey will get the call-up as a result of Rafalski being a scratch for tomorrow night’s game. Derek Meech has gotten solid third-pairing minutes since Niklas Kronwall has been out of the lineup. Meech has done reasonably well with limited minutes, going +1 during a stretch where he’s played in eight straight games. If I had to guess on the defensive pairings I think they’ll work out like this:

Lidstrom-Lilja
Chelios-Lebda
Meech-Quincey

Heck, why not also bring up Jonathan Ericsson and his triple-digit heater and see how he looks on the second power play unit? He could also add a little starch to the lineup:





So as much as it sucks to lose Rafalski from the lineup, I think it’s a good idea to bring up Quincey from Grand Rapids and see how he looks.

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