News and notes from the crease on a very busy Wednesday...
Greiss starts for Phoenix
Little-used backup Thomas Greiss will go for the Coyotes tonight as they take on the Wild in Minnesota.
Greiss has only played once this month -- stopping four shots in relief of Mike Smith on Saturday -- but has good numbers on the year, posting a 2-1-0 record with a 2.37 GAA and .928 save percentage.
He’ll be taking on Niklas Backstrom, who’ll play his third straight game for the Wild.
Lindback in for Tampa Bay
Another little-used backup will get the nod on Wednesday as Anders Lindback starts for Tampa Bay.
Lindback has only made seven appearances this year and has struggled, going 1-5-0 with a 3.47 GAA and .872 save percentage. Ben Bishop has taken Tampa’s No. 1 job and run with it, all but nullifying head coach Jon Cooper’s early-season assertion that he had “two starting goalies.”
Tampa Bay will host the Flyers tonight, and Ray Emery will be in the Philadelphia goal.
Elsewhere...
-- Jonas Gustavsson gets the nod for Detroit over Jimmy Howard (read more here). The Wings are hosting Boston, and the Bruins will go with Tuukka Rask.
-- Martin Brodeur starts over Corey Schneider for New Jersey (which has Schneider frustrated -- read more here). Brodeur will square off with Cam Ward, who gets the start for the ‘Canes.
-- Finnish phenom Antti Raanta will make his first NHL start for Chicago (read more here). The Hawks are going up against Calgary, and Reto Berra will be in goal.
-- Carey Price will take on Ryan Miller in the Montreal-Buffalo game, Craig Anderson will take on Braden Holtby in Sens-Caps, Marek Mazanec will face off with Sergei Bobrovsky in the Preds-Jackets game and Jonathan Bernier will go head-to-head with Marc-Andre Fleury in Toronto-Pittsburgh.
-- Cool matchup in Florida tonight as Henrik Lundqvist goes up against Tim Thomas, renewing their rivalry from the Rangers-Bruins days.
-- Jaro Halak vs. Semyon Varlamov tonight in Colorado.
-- Still no word on who the Kings and Sharks will be starting, but expect it to be Ben Scrivens vs. Antti Niemi.