Game Day Updates: Stars at Red Wings

The Johan Franzen Mystery Tour rolls on...

Franzen said he's not feeling any better, wouldn't elaborate on whether he's sick or injured and didn't want to comment further.

— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) November 7, 2013

Khan(!) also went on to tweet that The Mule will not play Saturday either, but Ken Holland is hopeful that he'll return next Tuesday. At this point we don't know what exactly is wrong with Franzen. He was sick last week, returned, left during a game, skated this morning and then left the ice early. It might be an injury. Maybe a concussion? I feel like the team would have said something. It's weird that they would be hiding injuries in November (and a potential concussion isn't worth hiding, period). Maybe there's other off ice issues going on. Maybe it's just some Mike Babcock mind games. Regardless, whether you agree or not, this team is better with Franzen in the lineup so hopefully he'll be good to go next week.

The other news of the day?

As expected, #RedWings F Jordin Tootoo clears waivers. Teams has 10 games/30 days to send him to minors for $925,000 in cap relief

— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) November 7, 2013

Tootoo will stay with the Red Wings. If he's not traded before now and next week, he'll likely be assigned to Grand Rapids before next Friday's game against the Capitals. Jonathan Ericsson will be eligible to come off LTIR at that point.

And a sad note for many of our readers and Wings fans out there

Smith said his shoulder felt good. He expects to be ready for Tuesday's game vs. Winnipeg, when he can come off short term IR

— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) November 7, 2013

Enjoy your Almquist time now, it's not going to last much longer.

Here are your lineups for tonight (barring last minute changes or injuries)

RED WINGS

Forwards

Henrik Zetterberg	Pavel Datsyuk	Todd Bertuzzi
Daniel Cleary	Stephen Weiss	Daniel Alfredsson
Tomas Tatar	Joakim Andersson	Justin Abdelkader
Drew Miller	Darren Helm	Mikael Samuelsson

Defensemen

Niklas Kronwall	Danny DeKeyser
Kyle Quincey	Jakub Kindl
Adam Almquist	Brian Lashoff

Goaltenders

Jimmy Howard (starting)

Jared Coreau

Scratches: Patrick Eaves, Johan Franzen (something), Jordin Tootoo (waived)

Injuries: Jonas Gustavsson (neck), Brendan Smith (shoulder)

LTIR: Jonathan Ericsson (shoulder)

STARS

Forwards

Jamie Benn	Tyler Seguin	Valeri Nichushkin
Ray Whitney	Cody Eakin	Alex Chiasson
Rich Peverley	Vernon Fiddler	Erik Cole
Ryan Garbutt	Shawn Horcoff	Antoine Roussel

Defensemen

Stephane Robidas	Brenden Dillon
Trevor Daley	Sergei Gonchar
Alex Goligoski	Jordie Benn

Goaltenders

Kari Lehtonen (starting)

Dan Ellis

Let's Go Red Wings.