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Red Wings at Sharks: Gameday Updates, Line Combinations, Key Match-ups

Line Combinations

Red Wings Lineup

Forwards

Gustav Nyquist Henrik Zetterberg Justin Abdelkader
Tomas Tatar Pavel Datsyuk Darren Helm
Dylan Larkin Riley Sheahan Brad Richards
Drew Miller Luke Glendening Tomas Jurco

Defensemen

Niklas Kronwall Jonathan Ericsson
Danny DeKeyser Alexey Marchenko
Brendan Smith Mike Green

Goaltenders

Petr Mrazek (starting)
Jimmy Howard

Scratches: Jakub Kindl, Joakim Andersson

Injuries: Teemu Pulkkinen (shoulder), Johan Franzen (concussion), Kyle Quincey (ankle)

Power-play units:

  1. Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Abdelkader (net front), Nyquist-Kronwall
  2. Tatar-Larkin-Sheahan (net front), Richards-Green

Sharks Lineup

Forwards

Melker Karlsson Joe Thornton Joe Pavelski
Patrick Marleau Logan Couture Joel Ward
Matt Nieto Tomas Hertl Tommy Wingels
Joonas Donskoi Dainius Zubrus Mike Brown

Defensemen

Marc-Edouard Vlasic Justin Braun
Paul Martin Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon Dylan DeMelo

Goaltenders

Martin Jones (starting)
Troy Grosenick

Key Matchups

Special Teams

The Sharks clock in at 21.8% and 81.0% on their PP and PK respectively; the Wings are significantly worse at 18.1% and 79.4%. That doesn’t bode well for Detroit tonight, but we’ll see if the return of Drew Miller helps reverse the slide of the PK in particular. Overall, it’s time to leave the bad special teams play in 2015 and get them both rolling into the latter half of the season.

Sharks Home Record vs Wings Road Record

The Sharks aren’t good at home this year, winning less than a third of games played in San Jose (5-11-0). The Wings have a “meh” road record (9-5-3); however, they’ve won their last two at the SAP Center and it would be nice to see that continue. The players have already been quoted as excited for more team bonding on this trip, and what better way to do it than start off the California swing than with a nice win in a hostile building?

Red Wings’ Battle with One-Goal Games

The Wings have played in 25 games that were decided by one goal and have a record of 15-3-7, which includes their most recent games against Buffalo and New Jersey as well as the loss to the Sharks earlier this season. While a win is a win and points are points in the grand scheme of things, it’s a heck of a lot nicer to see the Wings get (and hold, for goodness sake) a multi-goal lead.

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