Update (7:33 PM): The liveblog post is up at Abel to Yzerman. - Matt

Update (5:11 PM): Though the Wings’ December 26th win over St. Louis made Mike Babcock the coach of the Western Conference All Stars, the League made it official today.

Dallas head coach Dave Tippett is in a battle with San Jose’s Ron Wilson. If the Stars win tonight and tomorrow in Minnesota, Tippett will get the spot. - Matt

Update (3:34 PM): Red Wings TV has posted a brief video of Kirk Maltby discussing his back strain. - Matt

Update (2:30 PM): George Malik has a pre-game roundup at Snapshots.

Also, the Wings will be honoring Mike Modano, the highest scoring American-born NHLer, tonight (via Snapshots). It’s good that the Wings are making it a point to do that. Compare it with the treatment Modano received in Nashville last year. - Matt

Update (2:20 PM): Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News reports that Sergei Zubov will not play tonight due to a hand injury suffered New Year’s Eve. He’s officially listed as day-to-day and could be back in the lineup for the re-match on Saturday.

Heika points out that, without Zubov, the Dallas defense will consist of “three rookeis [sic] tonight along with Robidas, Daley and Norstrom.”

Ansar Khan writes that  Tomas Holmstrom had a”good, hard skate” today for the first time since going down with a knee bruise. There is no set date for his return, though. Expect it to take another week, at least. - Matt

Update (1:08 PM): MacLeod has updated his post to say that Zetterberg has been cleared to play tonight. He’ll start out between Jiri Hudler and Mikael Samuelsson, while Pavel Datsyuk will center Dan Cleary and Valtteri Filppula.

Helene St. James reports that Kirk Maltby is hoping to make it back on January 12th at Ottawa.

Also,  Mark Stepneski of Andrew’s Dallas Stars Page has posted his thoughts on the game. - Matt

Update (11:00 AM): Bruce MacLeod reports that Henrik Zetterberg’s return is contingent on there being no setbacks during the morning skate today. - Matt

The top two teams in the Western Conference face off for the first time this season tonight at Joe Louis Arena. Detroit won the 2006-2007 season series, 3-1, with wins October 27 (4-3), November 27th (2-1), and February 14th (3-1). Dallas won the March 30th meeting, 4-3 in a shootout. The teams will meet again on Saturday in Dallas and will finish the series with games on February 17th and March 13th.

Dallas posted a 10-4-0 record in December. They had their second four-game winning streak of the month snapped by a 1-0 loss to the Predators on New Year’s Eve. Prior to that, they had beaten the Flames, Canadiens, Wild, and Blues following a 3-2 loss to Vancouver.

The Stars are coming off a four-game homestand and are 11-7-2 on the road.

Mike Ribeiro leads the Stars in goals with 21 and Brendan Morrow is second with 15. Niklas Hagman (14), Mike Modano (12), and Jussi Jokinen (11) also have 10 or more goals.

Defenseman Sergei Zubov leads the team in assists with 30, while Morrow (24) and Ribeiro (22) are the only other Stars to crack the 20 assist plateau. Ribeiro and Morrow lead the team in overall points with 43 and 39, respectively.

It looks like the Stars will be without Jere Lehtinen (abdomen), Jussi Jokinen (knee), and Phillippe Boucher (shoulder).

Marty Turco will likely start tonight for the Stars. He is 15-8-3 this season with a 2.32 GAA and a .911 save-percentage. Turco has never won in Detroit as an NHLer and is 1-8-5 against the Wings in his career.

For the Dallas perspective, see Andrew’s Stars Page,  Razor with an Edge (official),  Stars Blog (Dallas Morning News), and Stars Scene. (via Japer’s Rink blogroll)

The Wings were 12-2-1 in December. Like the Stars, they finished the month with a shutout loss, with theirs coming at the hands of the St. Louis Blues. That came two nights after an uninspiring 4-2 win over Phoenix in which they were very nearly out-shot.

Tonight’s game is the second of a brief two-game homestand that will be followed by a two-stop road trip this weekend.

Henrik Zetterberg leads the team with 25 goals and Tomas Holmstrom is second with 17.  Four more Wings have 10+ goals: Pavel Datsyuk (15), Valtteri Filppula (13), Dan Cleary (12), and Jiri Hudler (10).

Henrik Zetterberg (back) is slated to return tonight after sitting out since suffering back spasms as a result of the December 20th game against the Blues.

Tomas Holmstrom (knee bruise) and Kirk Maltby (back) are both still out.

Mark Hartigan has been sent back to Grand Rapids.

Chris Osgood will start tonight.

For more of the Wings’ perspective, see Snapshots, Abel to Yzerman, HockeyTownTodd, Behind the Jersey, No Pun Intended, Red Wings Nation, yzerman is god, Detroit Hockey, LetsGoWings, and Winging It In Motown.

This game will be a good test of the Wings’ resiliency. They are coming off their first shutout loss of the season and a game that followed a weak performance against one of the League’s worst. They’ll be facing one of the League’s best tonight and will have to put out a good effort if they want to come out on top.

They should be bolstered by Chris Osgood’s presence in the net and by the return of Henrik Zetterberg, who will no doubt look to return to the scoreboard as well as the ice.

They cannot afford to get into penalty trouble, as the Stars’ power play is fourth in the NHL, and they cannot rely on their own power play to win, either. Dallas is first in penalty killing at 87.6 percent. If they can win the 5-on-5 game and stay out of penalty trouble, they be in good shape.