On the Wings

Update (6:27 PM): George Sipple of the freep reports that the Wings will be sticking with their original plan of not playing Dom in back to back games.

“If we change our mind now and we screw it up we’ll be the dumbest people alive,” Babcock said.

Thus, Joey MacDonald is slated to get the start tonight. Also, Jason Williams is making an early comeback (he was orginally not supposed to be back until Tuesday) in light of the injury (or rather, re-injury) to Kronwall. -Sarah

Update (4:45 PM): Um, I forgot to mention this little important detail: Jonathan Cheechoo may be back in the San Jose lineup. That’ll make things a little more interesting. - Matt

I don’t really have the time to write a real preview of the game tonight so I’ll just say a couple things.

It’s the third of four games between these two teams. The season series stands at a game a piece, with the teams trading home wins a month ago. They’ll wrap it all up on January 4th in San Jose.

The Sharks have won their last four and are in the middle of a four-game road trip that ends Monday in Dallas.

The Wings won in Minnesota last night and, contrary to my prediction, actually got their power play going, effectively scoring two times on the man-advantage (one goal came just after the penalty expired).

Niklas Kronwall aggrevated his groin injury last night and likely won’t play tonight. That means the Wings will have to call someone up if they want to have a full roster tonight, as Brett Lebda will have to move back to defense. As of now (1:00 PM ET), they have not yet recalled anyone from GR, however.

Dominik Hasek may be in net tonight, despite playing last night. He’s had a light enough work load this past week for the Wings to consider it.

I may or may not be watching the game tonight. We’ll see what I get tonight this afternoon and what happens this evening.