On the Wings

Update (11:05 AM): Dave of Gorilla Crouch has a nice analysis of the Draper deal here. - Matt

Tonight is the second of four meetings between these two teams this season. The Wings won the first, 4-2 last Thursday in San Jose. The remaining games will take place in January and February.

The Sharks have won both their games since losing to the Wings on the 18th. The first win came two nights later as they hosted and shut out the Predators 3-0. Two days after that, they took care of the Flames in Calgary, 4-1 to kick off a four-game road trip. After tonight, they’ll head to Columbus to play tomorrow night before facing Dallas on Monday.

Joe Thornton still leads the team in points, with an increase of three over the seven he had last time we saw him. Milan Michalek has taken the team lead in goals with six.

Our two favorite Sharks, Mike Grier (groin) and Kyle McLaren (chest) are listed as questionable.

Evgeni Nabokov should be in net tonight and will no doubt be looking to have a better outing this time around.

The Wings have also gone 2-0 since the October 18th game, winning first in Phoenix, 5-2 on the 20th, and then at home against the Canucks, 3-2 Wednesday night. After tonight, the team will fly out to Vancouver to face the Canucks again before stops in Edmonton and Calgary next week.

Henrik Zetterberg leads the team in points and goals with 18 and 7, respectively. That’s five more points than he had going into the game in San Jose.

Kris Draper signed a three-year contract extension yesterday. According to Bruce MacLeod, he’ll get $1.583 million a year. Can’t argue with that move. Drapes remains a highly valuable player to the team, both for his play and for his off-ice leadership. Good to know he’ll be around at least three more years.

Dallas Drake (cheek) and Johan Franzen (knee) remain the Wings only two skater injuries. Matt Ellis and Aaron Downey will continue to fill in there.

Dominik Hasek (hip) is day-to-day and will sit out tonight. Chris Osgood will get the start. Jimmy Howard will back him up.

The Wings need to pick up where they left off last week and play a strong game again tonight. The Sharks haven’t forgotten the playoffs and were embarrassed by the loss on the 18th. They’ll come out hard tonight and if the Wings do as well, expect a good game.

Sidenote: Having priced himself out of the NHL, Danny Markov has signed with Moscow Dynamo of the Russian Super League. Good luck, Danny.