Morning Skate: Sharks at Red Wings Preview

7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena

Detroit, MI

TV: Fox Sports Detroit

Radio: 97.1 The Ticket

Sharks Blogs: Fear the Fin & Battle of California

Detroit Red Wings Tickets

Seriously though, don't boo Brad Stuart. Do the classy thing and boo his family. It's THEIR fault.

— Winging It In Motown (@wingingitmotown) April 10, 2013

Mike Babcock juggled up the lines and, you know what, I don't hate them. In fact, I might even say I like them. I like them a lot. Uncle Mike may have finally gotten something right. You've got Tyler's Euro Twins still together with Justin Abdelkader trying to be Tomas Holmstrom. Mule is still at center with Goose on his wing, actually continuing to get a top six role. Flip is moved to the 3rd line with a returning Damien Brunner. Think about it. Each of the top three lines has two skill guys and a grinder/net front presence type guy. Instead of two lines that have the potential to score, the Red Wings now have three lines with a better potential to score. Joakim Andersson now centers the 4th line and makes the team that much deeper.

The Expected Lineup

Henrik Zetterberg - Pavel Datsyuk - Justin Abdelkader

Drew Miller - Johan Franzen - Gustav Nyquist

Daniel Cleary - Valtteri Filppula - Damien Brunner

Cory Emmerton - Joakim Andersson - Patrick Eaves

*

Niklas Kronwall - Jonathan Ericsson

Brendan Smith - Kyle Quincey

Danny DeKeyser - Jakub Kindl

*

Jimmy Howard (starting)

Jonas Gustavsson

Scratches: Jordin Tootoo, Ian White, Brian Lashoff and Carlo Colaiacovo

Injuries: Mikael Samuelsson (upper body), Todd Bertuzzi (back) and Darren Helm (back)

SHARKS	THE MATCH-UP	RED WINGS
20-12-7 (47 pts; 5th in West)	Record	19-15-5 (43 pts; 8th in West)
2.36 (25th in NHL)	Goals Per Game	2.49 (21st in NHL)
2.41 (8th)	Goals Against Per Game	2.54 (14th)
18.5% (12th)	Power Play %	18.1% (15th)
86.9% (4th)	Penalty Kill %	80.0% (22nd)
Patrick Marleau (16 goals)	Goal Leader	Pavel Datsyuk (13 goals)
Joe Thornton (35 points)	Points Leader	Pavel Datsyuk (38 points)

• The Red Wings are 51-24-4-2 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time against the San Jose Sharks.
• After winning 7 straight games, the Sharks have lose two-in-a-row. They lost in a shootout to Dallas and then were shut out by the Blue Jackets. Naturally they lose when playing a team that is chasing Detroit.
• The Wings are 3-3-0 on Thursdays this season.
• The last time these two teams met was March 28. The Sharks shut the Wings out 2-0. The loss snapped Detroit's 3 game win streak.
• Detroit is 5-5-0 in their last 10 games. San Jose is 7-2-1.
• Howard is 3-5-2 with a 2.98 GAA and .906 SV% in 10 career regular starts against the Sharks.