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The Dirt:
Riley Sheahan was sent back to Grand Rapids on Monday after being called called up Saturday in case Zetterberg (who has been battling a sore groin) couldn't play Sunday against the Blues. Zetterberg did play Sunday, and hey, so did Sheahan. After the game, Babcock said Sheahan needs to get quicker and have more "pace to his game", but that he's going to be a player for the Wings in the future.
Babcock said Darren Helm is out for the rest of the season. Helm didn't want to say for sure that he's out for the rest of the season, but even if he were somehow able to join practices this week (he won't), he still wouldn't be ready until Playoffs. In a radio interview yesterday, Holland said he hasn't ruled Helm out for the season and that they were still "crossing their fingers". I'm pretty sure he was just trolling. Helm skated again on Wednesday for a little while, but left the ice before the team started doing drills.
Neither Bertuzzi nor Samuelsson were on the ice Wednesday, but Bertuzzi did skate for a little bit Tuesday. Neither of them have a return scheduled.
Brunner says everything feels good, he has no pain, and he'll be back in the lineup tonight after missing 3 games with sore hip flexor muscles.
In an attempt to get some offense going, Babcock is shaking up the forward lines again, but this time more than we're used to seeing. San Jose has also shuffled their lines and spread the talent out, so Babcock wants to make sure we match up well against them and aren't too top heavy (stop laughing). Babs knows we don't have scoring depth right now, so he's trying something new.
"When you go through our lineup, we don't have a bunch of scorers anyway, so when you're not a scorer there's only one way to get it into the net and that's bang it in. Whether it goes off your leg, do it that way. We need some ugly goals.''
Smith was a healthy scratch the last two games, but will return to the lineup tonight. Those two games were the longest he's been out of the lineup for non-injury reasons.
Hey guys, I think Kronwall read my article.
"This is really when you test the character of the team,'' Kronwall said. "It's about sticking together, it's about doing everything together as a unit. It's going to come down to the wire.
Oh, and in case you missed it today, Jimmy Howard says he's "very, very close" to a contract extension that's in the 6 year, 5.3m range.The Twitter news went something like this: Howard is close to an extension... Hold it, Holland said they're no closer than they were a week ago...Jimmy Howard says they're really really close... Stop saying that, it's not that close...Howard says they could have a deal done by next weekend...They might have a deal done by this weekend... I didn't hear anything else after that. Maybe chucking my computer out the window had something to do with that. Hmmm...
Today in Red Wings history:
April 11, 1936- led by captain Doug Young, the Red Wings captured their first Stanley Cup title, defeating Toronto 3-1 in a 4 game series.
Wings vs Sharks stats:
Tonight's game is the 82nd all-time meeting between DET and SJS
This is DET's 40th all-time home game vs SJS
DET's all-time record vs SJS: 51-24-4-2
DET's all-time home record vs SJS: 30-7-1-1
Last head-to-head game: SJS 2, DET 0 on Mar. 28 at HP Pavilion
DET is 3-6-1 in its last 10 regular season games vs SJS
DET is 1-3-1 in its last 5 regular season home games vs SJS
DET's PP is 8-30 (26.7%) over the last 10 regular season games vs SJS
DET's PK is 20-25 (80.0%) over the last 10 regular season games vs SJS
Zetterberg has 8 points (5-3-8) over the last 10 regular season games vs SJS
Zetterberg has 35 points (17-18-35) in 36 career games vs SJS
Datsyuk has 31 points (8-23-31) in 39 career games vs SJS
Kronwall has 14 points (3-11-14) in 26 career games vs SJS
Howard is 3-5-2 with a 2.98 GAA and .906 SV% in 10 career games vs SJS
Upcoming player milestones:
Zetterberg - 1 assist to 400
Filppula - 2 goals to 100
Franzen - 3 points to 300
Quincey - 3 points to 100
Samuelsson - 5 assists to 200
Facts:
Zetterberg's next assist will be the 400th of his career
Zetterberg has 260 career goals and is currently 4 goals behind Nicklas Lidstrom (264) for 9th overall in team history
Zetterberg is currently T-7th in the NHL with 27 assists
Kronwall is currently 4th among NHL D with 26 points (5-21-26)
Datsyuk has 14 points (5-9-14) over the last 14 games
Datsyuk is currently 2nd in the NHL with 47 takeaways
Datsyuk has 756 career points (253-503-756) and is currenlty 2 points behind Norm Ullman (758) for 6th overall in team history
Datsyuk has either scored the GWG or assisted on the GWG in 5 of the last 6 road victories by Detroit
Howard has 126 career wins and is currently 2 wins behind Tim Cheveldae (128) for 5th overall in team history
Franzen has 11 points (2-9-11) over the last 12 games
Nyquist has 3 points (1-2-3) over the last 4 games
Filppula has collected just one point (1-0-0) over the last 10 games
Andersson has no points over the last 10 games
Eaves has no points over his last 12 games played
Detroit is 6-4-0 in the first game of back-to-back sets played in 2012-13
Detroit is 7-2-1 in the second game of back-to-back sets played in 2012-13
Detroit's PK has allowed just one goal over the last 6 games (11-12, 91.7%)
Detroit is currently T-5th in the NHL with 17 home PPG
Detroit's PP has scored at least one goal in 8 of the last 9 road games
Detroit's PP is 10-33 (30.3%) over the last 9 road games after going 0-36 (0%) through the first 10 road games of the season
Detroit is 84-4-4 the last 92 times its scored 4+ goals in a game
Detroit has lost 216 man games due to injury through 38 games played in 2012-13. In 1994-95 (last 48-game season) DET lost a total of 102 total man games due to injury for the year.
The Wings are currently 21st in the league in goals per game at 2.49
Team Leaders:
Goals: 13 (Datsyuk)
Assists: 27 (Zetterberg)
Points: 38 (Datsyuk)
Plus-Minus: +13 (Datsyuk, Kindl)
PIM: 78 (Tootoo)
PPG: 7 (Datsyuk)
SHG: 1 (Zetterberg, Cleary)
GWG: 6 (Datsyuk)
Shots on goal: 131 (Zetterberg)
TOI per game avg: 24:08 (Kronwall)
Hits: 92 (Abdelkader)
Blocked shots: 64 (Kronwall)
Takeaways: 47 (Datsyuk)
Face-off percentage: 57.0% (Filppula 106W-80L)
Lineup for tonight:
Forwards |
||
Henrik Zetterberg |
Pavel Datsyuk |
Justin Abdelkader |
Gustav Nyquist |
Johan Franzen |
Drew Miller |
Daniel Cleary |
Valtteri Filppula |
Damien Brunner |
Cory Emmerton |
Joakim Andersson |
Patrick Eaves |
Defense |
|
Niklas Kronwall |
Jonathan Ericsson |
Kyle Quincey |
Brendan Smith |
Danny DeKeyser |
Jakub Kindl |
Goalies |
Jimmy Howard |
Jonas Gustavsson |
Healthy Scratch |
Carlo Colaiacovo |
Brian Lashoff |
Jordin Tootoo |
Ian White |
Injured |
Todd Bertuzzi (Back) |
Darren Helm (Back) |
Mikael Samuelsson (Torn Pectoral Muscle) |
Referees:
Don VanMassenhoven and Kevin Pollock
Anticipated Sharks lineup:
Patrick Marleau – Logan Couture – Brent Burns
T.J. Galiardi – Joe Pavelski – Martin Havlat
Tommy Wingels – Joe Thornton – Raffi Torres
James Sheppard – Andrew Desjardins – Adam Burish
Matt Irwin – Dan Boyle
Brad Stuart – Jason Demers
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Antti Niemi
Thomas Greiss