… The Oilers are having a rough season. Right now, only the Hurricanes and Leafs are behind them in the standings. They’ve managed just a 10-13-4 record through 27 games.

… They’re currently on a three-game skid, having lost to LA, San Jose and Vancouver in succession. The loss to the Canucks came Saturday, so they’ve had some rest.

… That rest doesn’t mean a ton for the Oilers though. They’ve lost an impressive 164 man-games to injury this season after losing 225 for all of last year. Nightmare on Helm Street has the details. Yeah, they’ve had some bad luck.

… Looks like Jeff Deslauriers will start tonight for the Oilers. He’s 3-4-0 this season and is probably poised to play the game of his life against Detroit tonight.

… The Wings halted a three-game skid of their own on Saturday with a win over the Blues. They followed that up with a strong win over Dallas on Monday.

… The roster tonight will be the same one that won the Stars game, with one major exception: Brian Rafalski is out with a sore back.

As  result, Jakub Kindl is in and not only that, he’ll get power play time on the first unit right out of the box. Into the fire and all that. Should be interesting.

… “Same one” means Patrick Eaves remains out with a sore ankle. Here’s hoping he can kick that soon because I don’t want his upside soured by injury-proneness.

… “Same one” also means Jimmy Howard is starting. Again. Makes sense to ride him while he’s hot, especially when it should mean a motivated Osgood at such time as he’s able to get a game away from the kid.

… This is another one of those games the Wings should win easily. And you know what that means. Here’s hoping the buck that trend tonight.