Morning Skate: Red Wings at Sharks
Game 60
10:30p ET, SAP Center
San Jose, CA
TV: Fox Sports Detroit, Sportsnet 360
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Shark Blog: Fear The Fin
The California reunion tour continues late tonight in San Jose. Detroit comes into this game losers of two straight after dropping back-to-back games to the Ducks and Kings. Quite frankly, two points tonight would go a long way to being able to call this western road trip a success. The Sharks haven't played since losing in the Stadium Series game to the Kings last Saturday. They'll be well rested. Fantastic.
San Jose is currently on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoffs. They're in the middle of the super tight Western Conference wild card race, 2 points behind the Flames for the final spot, so they'll be desperate for points. The Red Wings need to play like they're desperate for points too. It's nice having all these games in hand on the Lightning, but it doesn't matter if you fail to earn any points in them. The Wings are 3 points back with 3 games in hand. Start chipping away and earn some home ice.
The Expected Lineups (Subject to Change)
Forwards
| Tomas Tatar | Pavel Datsyuk | Darren Helm |
| Gustav Nyquist | Riley Sheahan | Justin Abdelkader |
| Stephen Weiss | Luke Glendening | Teemu Pulkkinen |
| Drew Miller | Joakim Andersson | Tomas Jurco |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Jakub Kindl | Danny DeKeyser |
| Brendan Smith | Alexi Marchenko |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Jonas Gustavsson |
Scratches: Daniel Cleary
Injuries: Henrik Zetterberg (upper body) & Johan Franzen (headaches)
Forwards
| Patrick Marleau | Joe Thornton | Melker Karlsson |
| Joe Pavelski | Logan Couture | Tommy Wingels |
| Tomas Hertl | James Sheppard | Matthew Nieto |
| John Scott | Andrew Dejardins | Tyler Kennedy |
Defensemen
| Marc-Edouard Vlasic | Brent Burns |
| Brenden Dillon | Justin Braun |
| Matt Irwin | Scott Hannan |
Goaltenders
| Antti Niemi |
| Alex Stalock |
| SHARKS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 30-23-8 (68 pts; 4ht in West WC) | Record | 33-15-11 (77 pts; 3rd in Atlantic) |
| 2.77 (16th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.88 (8th in NHL) |
| 2.77 (22nd) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.46 (8th) |
| 20.5% (7th) | Power Play % | 25.2% (1st, bitches) |
| 80.4% (21st) | Penalty Kill % | 83.2% (9th) |
| Joe Pavelski (31 goals) | Goal Leader | Tomas Tatar (24 goals) |
| Joe Pavelski (55 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (49 points) |
- The Red Wings are 51-25-4-4 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time in the regular season against the San Jose Sharks franchise./
- Last 10 Games: San Jose 3-6-1, Detroit 5-3-2/
- Howard is 3-6-4 all-time against the Sharks in the regular season with a 2.79 GAA, .910 SV% and one shutout./