7:30p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Shark Blog: Fear The Fin
The Red Wings badly need to a win a game. Their opponent, the Sharks, also badly need to win. Yes, the Wings are in a good spot still. Missing the playoffs would only occur if a massive collapse happened. It’s possible, of course, but according to SportsClubStats.com, there’s a 98.5% chance the Wings make it. So let’s not all jump off the ledge just yet. The Sharks on the other hand are in deep water. They’re 8 points back of the final playoff spot in the Pacific and 10 points back of the final Wild Card. San Jose is looking at it’s first playoff-less season since 2002-03.
As far as tonight’s game goes, the Wings won’t have the services of Erik Cole for a bit. He could miss about 3 games and will be re-evaluated on Friday, according to Khan(!). With all that said, the services of Pavel Datsyuk and Niklas Kronwall are a possibility tonight. The Wings could really use the boost. The lines below are listed without Datsyuk, so obviously they’ll changed if he gives it a go.
The Wings have to turn things around sooner or later, right? Tonight would be a good time to start.
The Expected Lineups (Subject to Change)
Forwards
| Gustav Nyquist | Henrik Zetterberg | Justin Abdelkader |
| Darren Helm | Riley Sheahan | Tomas Tatar |
| Stephen Weiss | Joakim Andersson | Teemu Pulkkinen |
| Drew Miller | Luke Glendening | Tomas Jurco |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Kyle Quincey | Danny DeKeyser |
| Brendan Smith | Marek Zidlicky |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek (starting) |
| Jimmy Howard |
Scratches: Daniel Cleary & Jakub Kindl
Injuries: Erik Cole (upper body), Pavel Datsyuk (lower body) & Johan Franzen (concussion)
Forwards
| Joe Pavelski | Joe Thornton | Melker Karlsson |
| Matt Nieto | Logan Couture | Tommy Wingels |
| Patrick Marleau | Chris Tierney | Tomas Hertl |
| Danil Tarasov | Ben Smith | Barclay Goodrow |
Defensemen
| Marc-Edouard Vlasic | Justin Braun |
| Matt Irwin | Brent Burns |
| Brendan Dillon | Mirco Mueller |
Goaltenders
| Antti Niemi |
| Alex Stalock |
| SHARKS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 35-30-8 (78 pts; 5th in West WC) | Record | 39-21-11 (90 pts; 3rd in Atlantic) |
| 2.71 (16th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.85 (9th in NHL) |
| 2.75 (23rd) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.58 (15th) |
| 21.8% (6th) | Power Play % | 24.9% (1st) |
| 79.1% (24th) | Penalty Kill % | 81.0% (17th) |
| Joe Pavelski (35 goals) | Goal Leader | Tomas Tatar (26 goals) |
| Joe Pavelski (66 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (61 points) |
- The Red Wings are 52-25-4-4 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time in the regular season against the San Jose Sharks./
- Last 10 Games: San Jose 5-5-0, Detroit 3-6-1 (yikes)/
- Mrazek has never started against the Sharks. He has played 20 minutes in relief though and he stopped all three shots he faced./
