With the game last night, the Red Wings had an optional skate this morning. The diggers confirmed that Jimmy Howard is the starter tonight, but also that Blashill played coy with other lineup decisions.

#RedWings Blashill said any lineup changes would be determined after warmups.

— Dana Wakiji (@Dwakiji) October 22, 2016

We’ve got things here the same as last night. With the performance put up by the lines/pairings that have so far been the subject of shuffling in/out, I’m not sure we should necessarily expect any changes. Ryan Sproul was good and the OMG line spent a lot of time in the offensive zone.

We’ll keep eyes peeled for updates as the day goes.

Forwards

Defensemen

Goaltenders

Power Play

1. Tatar-Nielsen-Zetterberg, Vanek (net front), Green
2. Nyquist-Larkin-Sheahan, Abdelkader (net front), Sproul

Sharks Lineup

Key Matchups

Both Teams vs. Fatigue

The Sharks are at the end of a long road trip and the Wings played last night. The team that better dictates the pace over the course of the game should get a pretty good advantage going into the third. You don’t want to have to be playing catch up late in this contest.

Third Line vs. Third Line

Detroit’s third has been its best, most-consistent line. Tonight they’re up against a Sharks’ third featuring old Red Wings killer Joel Ward and Eugene Levy cosplayer Patrick Marleau. It’s not exactly a mirror image to the Wings’ 3rd, but it should be a decent challenge for those guys.

Detroit’s PK vs. Itself

The Wings’ penalty kill has not been good enough. They’ve failed in a whole lot of different ways from uncovered high/low lanes to uncleared net fronts to real bad rebounds. While it’s harder to look at PK as a process and say “well they’re just not getting results” I don’t think you can do that with Detroit’s SH process. They’re going to take penalties tonight and the Sharks’ PP has plenty of firepower. Need a better performance in this one.