DETROIT – Forward Todd Bertuzzi will not play Saturday night for the Detroit Red Wings against the visiting Anaheim Ducks.

“(Bertuzzi’s) not feeling good,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “He’s been sick for a few days and he’s just not feeling good.”

TheRed Wings (5-5-1) will also be without forward Patrick Eaves (lower back) for the second straight game after he injured himself against the Minnesota Wild earlier this week. Eaves has missed two practices, but skated with the Wings on Saturday morning before getting more treatment on his back.

Fabian Brunnstrom, who made the Red Wings roster on a tryout offer in training camp, has been recalled from Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League to enter the lineup in place of Bertuzzi. Brunnstrom played in just one game with Detroit before he was sent down and has one goal in one game with the Griffins.

Where he will be placed in the lineup is to be determined because Detroit didn’t skate their forward lines Saturday morning, but Bertuzzi had skated at left wing on the top line with Pavel Datsyuk and Danny Cleary during practice Friday.

Forward Jiri Hudler will also be in the lineup after needing 26 stitches to sew up cuts above and below his left eye after he was pushed headfirst into the boards last game by Calgary’s Scott Hannan. Hudler’s eye is still swollen and the headaches he dealt with kept him awake most of the first night. However, he wasn’t going to ask out of the lineup – especially during Detroit’s current six-game winless skid.

“Pain?” Hudler said on Friday. “Haven’t got time for pain.”

PHILADELPHIA -- Chris Pronger took part in his first full morning skate since injuring his eye Oct. 24, and said the biggest issue for him is getting his conditioning back where it needs to be.

"It's a process," he said following practice this morning at Wells Fargo Center. "When you don't do anything for a week, you lose a little bit, your timing. Really you're just trying to do drills to get that back, get your conditioning back."

Pronger also is adjusting to wearing a visor for the first time in his NHL career. He said he did wear one in juniors, but he played his last junior game in May 1993.

He said he hadn't had too much of an issue with the visor so far, but said he really wouldn't know how it might affect him until he gets into a game.

"I haven't really done much out there, contact-wise, to really tell," Pronger said. "I haven't played in a game so I can't really tell you. I haven't done anything other than skate. It hasn't fogged up because I haven't been doing much.

"It is clear, so I can see through it. But there is that lip (at the bottom), and you're used to not really having to look, it's right there. It is a bit of an adjustment. Sometimes it's something you have to do and you just get used to it."

Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said Friday that the vision in Pronger's right eye has returned to pre-injury level. Pronger said he still is taking things slowly.

"I have to keep seeing how I do after each day," Pronger said. "I've been slowly doing more and more every day. See how my head responds."

Pronger isn't ready to circle a return date, but after tonight, the Flyers don't play again until Wednesday in Tampa Bay, which certainly works in his favor as far as limiting the number of games he misses.

"I'll get a couple good practices and try to crank it up and see how I feel," he said.

He's missed five games (it'll become six tonight), and Pronger said one of the things he's noticed is a lack of consistency and a missing killer instinct. He cited Thursday's loss to New Jersey, when the Flyers blew two leads en route to a 4-3 shootout loss, as an example.

"I think the biggest thing is consistency," he said. "We have to play 60 minutes of hockey to be successful. Taking periods off, shifts off, all the rest of that costs you games, and has in the past this year, and previous years I've been here. We have to figure out how to play 60 minutes and make sure when you get teams down like we did the other night, 2-0, you put on the gas and put our foot on the throat, closing games out. It's a learning process and something we need to learn early on in the season to make sure as the season goes on we get better at that."

Contact Adam Kimelman at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @NHLAdamK

Here are the projected lineups for the Anaheim Ducks and Detroit Red Wings for their game Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.

ANAHEIM

Bobby Ryan – Ryan Getzlaf – Corey Perry
Andrew Cogliano – Saku Koivu – Teemu Selanne
Matt Beleskey – Maxime Macenauer – Andrew Gordon
Devante Smith-Pelly – Brandon McMillan – Peter Holland

Cam Fowler – Francois Beauchemin
Lubomir Visnovsky – Toni Lydman
Luca Sbisa – Kurtis Foster

Jonas Hiller is starting and Dan Ellis will be his back-up. Holland could make his NHL debut in place of Nick Bonino, who is questionable because of a hyperextended knee.

DETROIT

Jiri Hudler – Pavel Datsyuk – Danny Cleary
Valtteri Filppula – Henrik Zetterberg – Johan Franzen
Fabian Brunnstrom – Justin Abdelkader – Darren Helm
Drew Miller – Cory Emmerton – Tomas Holmstrom

Nicklas Lidstrom – Ian White
Niklas Kronwall – Brad Stuart
Jonathan Ericsson – Mike Commodore

Jimmy Howard will make the start in goal, and Ty Conlkin will be his back-up. Todd Bertuzzi will not play because of illness.

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- The Washington Capitals have owned the New York Islanders in recent years. They swept the season series against the Isles in 2010-11 and have 11 wins and three overtime/shootout losses in the last 14 meetings.

The Caps are also 9-2-0 and averaging four goals a game after a 5-1 win Friday at Carolina. The Islanders have gone six games without a win and are last in the NHL with just 18 goals scored.
But don't try to tell coach Bruce Boudreau or his players that tonight's visit to the Nassau Coliseum will be easy -- after all, eight of the last 14 games between the teams have gone past regulation and 11, including all four last season, were decided by one goal.

"I never take these guys lightly," Boudreau said. "They are as tough a team as we play, no matter what they've gone through. You look at their lineup and you have a hard time believing that so many good players have not got very many goals. You watch the last three games -- they worked so hard, you just know they're going to break out. You just pray it's not against you."

Forward Mike Knuble warned that the Caps can't just take the Islanders' record at face value.

"That's a trap you fall into," he said. "You look at their record and you see they haven't scored a lot of goals and it's very easy to think you're going to have another night like last night. They show up and play hard against us. They can put you on your heels very quickly.

"They'll come out buzzing -- we know that. You can talk about it and know it's going to happen, but you have to be prepared for it."

In addition to solid goaltending, scheduling and a bit of luck, Boudreau said his team's depth offensively is a major reason for the fast start.

"We've had pretty good balance, where if some guys aren't going, other guys are going,” Boudreau said. “We haven't had a game as yet where we've had 15 guys just not going. That's been a positive thing."

For the Islanders to snap their slide, they'll have to beat a goaltender who has given them fits throughout his career. Tomas Vokoun is 7-1-0 in his first season with the Caps -- and 14-5-1 with a 1.96 goals-against average and four shutouts in his career against the Isles.

Here is the projected lineup for the Capitals:

Alex Ovechkin – Nicklas Backstrom – Alexander Semin
Troy Brouwer – Marcus Johansson – Cody Eakin/Mathieu Perreault
Jason Chimera – Brooks Laich – Joel Ward
Matt Hendricks – Jeff Halpern – Mike Knuble

Roman Hamrlik – John Carlson
Jeff Schultz – Karl Alzner
John Erskine – Dennis Wideman

Tomas Vokoun
Michal Neuvirth

Here is the projected lineup for the Toronto Maple Leafs for their game Saturday night against the Boston Bruins:

Joffrey Lupul – Tim Connolly – Phil Kessel
Clarke MacArthur – Mikhail Grabovski – Nikolai Kulemin
Matthew Lombardi – Tyler Bozak – Joey Crabb
Jay Rosehill – David Steckel – Mike Brown
 
Carl Gunnarson – Dion Phaneuf
John-Michael Liles – Mike Komisarek
Jake Gardiner – Cody Franson

Ben Scrivens
Jonas Gustavsson

Luke Schenn will be a healthy scratch for the first time since December 16th, 2009. Scrivens will start in net for a second straight game after making 38 saves in his NHL debut Thursday against Columbus.
 

NEWARK, N.J. -- Despite an admirable effort, New Jersey Devils forward Ilya Kovalchuk wasn't able to finish the team's morning skate at Prudential Center and has ruled himself out of his team’s game Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets.
 
Kovalchuk left halfway through the practice session and never returned.
 
"Every year it seems I miss one or two games … last year I miss because of different reasons but hopefully, this year, this will be the only game," Kovalchuk told reporters following practice.
 
Kovalchuk feels his replacement on the top line -- David Clarkson -- will be an admirable fill-in.
 
"Definitely, he's on fire right now, especially his backhand," Kovalchuk said with a grin.
 
Kovalchuk left a game Thursday in Philadelphia late in the third period after suffering a leg muscle pull late in regulation a 4-3 shootout win, forcing him to miss overtime and the shootout. Kovalchuk, who averages a team-leading 25:30 of ice time per game, is second on the team with nine points, including two goals, in 11 games this season.
 

"I talked to [Kovalchuk] this morning and he was feeling better, he wanted to skate," Devils coach Peter DeBoer said. "But we also know there's a lot of hockey left to be played so we don't want to push him into something that could lead to something longer and that's the situation.
 
"Just on the fact he was out there, felt better and wanted to skate tells me that I don't believe it's long term but I'm not a doctor either and I've been wrong on these things before."
 
DeBoer feels Clarkson, who has four goals and five points in 11 games this season, has earned an opportunity on the top line alongside center Adam Henrique and left wing Zach Parise
 
"Clarkie deserves to be there [on the top line]; he's scored two games in a row, had nine shots on net last game and he's had an outstanding start to the season," DeBoer said. "I'm a big believer in rewarding guys for their play and he's worked his way up to with Kovy out there's an opportunity there for him.

"Clarkie just can't start to think he's Kovy."
 
DeBoer will also be without the services of defenseman Andy Greene for a second consecutive game. Greene sat out Thursday with a lower-body injury. He did skate with the club Saturday, but will not be in the lineup.
 
"I don't think [Greene's] injury is a long-term thing; it's the same type of thing as Kovy," DeBoer said. "He was playing with it and it wasn't getting better so he needs to rest to get it better. He wasn't helping his cause or ours playing hurt the way he was."
 
Goalie Johan Hedberg, however, is in good health and will serve as Martin Brodeur's backup against the Jets. Hedberg complained of back pain following the victory Thursday. He told reporters that something "popped" in there in the third period.
 
"Hedberg really [seized] up after the game and he had trouble really walking out of the rink in Philadelphia so for him to come in [Saturday] and be back pretty much to 100 percent is really good news," DeBoer said.
 
Brodeur confirmed Friday that he would start against the Jets. While Brodeur did feel some discomfort in his right shoulder following Wednesday's 5-3 loss to Toronto (his first game since Oct. 13), the pain eventually subsided. The game against the Jets will be Brodeur's first appearance against a team from Winnipeg since Dec. 29, 1995 when the Devils suffered a 5-3 setback at the old Winnipeg Arena.
 
Brodeur sported a mark of 3-1-0 with a 2.26 goals-against average and one shutout against the original Jets. In 11 seasons against the Atlanta Thrashers, Brodeur was 22-8-8 with a 2.16 GAA and seven shutouts.
 
Here is the projected lineup for the Devils:
 
Zach Parise - Adam Henrique - David Clarkson
Petr Sykora - Patrik Elias - Dainius Zubrus
Rod Pelley - Brad Mills - Cam Janssen
Mattias Tedenby - Ryan Carter - Nick Palmieri
 
Henrik Tallinder - Mark Fayne
Bryce Salvador - Adam Larsson
Anton Volchenkov - Mark Fraser

Martin Brodeur
Johan Hedberg
 

Here are the projected lineups for Saturday night’s game between the Buffalo Sabres and the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Place. The Sabres did not skate, while the Sens held an optional practice, with only Chris Phillips, Filip Kuba and Erik Karlsson sitting out.

OTTAWA

Milan Michalek – Jason Spezza – Colin Greening
Nick Foligno – Stephane Da Costa – Bobby Butler
Kaspars Daugavins – Zack Smith – Chris Neil
Nikita Filatov – Jesse Winchester – Erik Condra

Filip Kuba – Erik Karlsson
Jared Cowen – Sergei Gonchar
Chris Phillips – Brian Lee

Craig Anderson will get the start, with Alex Auld serving as backup.

Zenon Konopka and David Rundblad are the healthy scratches.

BUFFALO

Thomas Vanek – Luke Adam – Jason Pominville
Ville Leino – Derek Roy – Drew Stafford
Nathan Gerbe – Paul Gaustad – Brad Boyes
Cody McCormick – Matt Ellis – Corey Tropp

Robyn Regehr – Jordan Leopold
Tyler Myers – Andrej Sekera
Marc-Andre Gragnani – Christian Ehrhoff

Ryan Miller is expected to get the start, with Jhonas Enroth backing him up.

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Rick DiPietro will get his third straight start when the New York Islanders play host to the Washington Capitals tonight, but the cast in front of him has been rearranged. With his team mired in a six-game losing streak and stuck in an offensive slump, coach Jack Capuano has completely revamped his lines.

John Tavares, who has seven of the Isles' 18 goals, will center the top line with Matt Moulson on the right side and Michael Grabner moving up and playing on the left. Frans Nielsen, Grabner's usual center, will have PA Parenteau, Tavares' regular right wing, and Brian Rolston, who moves up from the third line, on the left.

Marty Reasoner moves from the fourth line to the third and will center Blake Comeau and Kyle Okposo -- who usually plays with Nielsen and Grabner. Josh Bailey, who hasn't had a point in 11 games this season, will center a fourth line with Jay Pandolfo and Matt Martin.

"Obviously we haven't been scoring many goals," Capuano said. "We've got to do something."

Capuano did not tell his players about the changes until this morning; Friday's practice was run using the pairings that the Isles had maintained through their first 11 games.

"It doesn't matter who you play with," he said. "You have to do the little things."

DiPietro will make his third straight start, with Al Montoya dressing as his backup. Evgeni Nabokov continues to recover from a lower-body injury; Capuano said he's close to being at full strength and will skate Sunday.

The Capitals, who come to Nassau Coliseum with a 9-2-0 record after winning 5-1 at Carolina on Saturday, probably wouldn't be Capuano's choice of opponent as his team goes for its first win in three weeks. The Caps won their first seven games, lost at Edmonton and Vancouver, then bounced back by beating Anaheim and Carolina this week. They are also 11-0-3 in their last 14 games against the Isles.

"They have some guys who are obviously very skilled. Time and space are something that we have to take away as much as we can," Capuano said when asked about slowing down an attack that includes Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. "We can't let their fourth man beat us up the ice. We have to be very disciplined in our own end."
 
Here is the projected lineup for the Islanders:
 
Michael Grabner – John Tavares – Matt Moulson
Brian Rolston – Frans Nielsen – PA Parenteau
Blake Comeau – Marty Reasoner – Kyle Okposo
Matt Martin – Josh Bailey – Jay Pandolfo

Mark Streit – Steve Staios
Andrew MacDonald – Travis Hamonic
Mark Eaton – Milan Jurcina

Rick DiPietro
Al Montoya

At 4:55 of the second period in the Blackhawks/Lightning game, video review determined that the puck entered the Chicago net in a legal fashion and that the net didn't completely come off its moorings before the puck entered the net. Call on the ice stands, good goal Tampa Bay.

At 13:13 of the first period in the Canucks/Blues game, video review was used to determine if the puck was struck by a Vancouver high stick before entering the net. Video review determined that the puck deflected off of a St. Louis Blues defender. Call on the ice stands -- good goal Vancouver.