Wings vs Sharks Game Day Updates

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