Category Archive for ‘Sharks’ at On the Wings

Archive for the 'Sharks' CategoryPage 4 of 4

GameDay: @ San Jose (26-14-0, 52 Pts) 10:30 ET

Published

on January 4, 2007

in 2006-2007, GameDay and Sharks

. 2 Comments

Update (5:30 PM): Looks like Dominik Hasek is the starter, according to gjberg in the comments.

I can understand Babcock wanting extra-strength goaltending tonight against Thornton and Company, especially with Chris Chelios out (and Andreas Lilja in), but I hope Chris Osgood gets a couple starts on this trip. Now that he’s healthy, the Wings have a chance to make good on their promises not to overplay Dom in the regular season by starting Ozzie more often.

It’s glamorous for Dom to continue to post shutouts and as well as a GAA below 2.00, but it’s even more glamorous for him to do so in the playoffs. They need to strike more of a balance between overplaying him and underplaying him, since either way, there’s an increasing danger he could break down. For now, they definitely seem to be leaning toward the overplaying side. Starting Osgood more often would bring things towards the center and keep Dom fresh going into the postseason.

So, he’ll Saturday night in LA, right, Babcock? - Matt

Update (2:32 PM): Thanks to Mike in the comments for pointing out that Evgeni Nabokov is likely to be in net tonight because Toskala got the last start.

I should have known that, but Toskala’s player page lists him as having played in the last three games (two starts and one substitution), while Nabokov’s lists him as having started two games in a row last month (December 23rd and 26th). At first glance, those two facts contradict the idea of a goalie rotation, despite the fact that it’s common knowledge that San Jose does it.

Sorry for the mistake. - Matt

Tonight is the fourth and final game between these two teams this season. The Sharks lead the series 2-1, with wins coming on October 19th (5-1) and December 2nd (3-2). The Wings won the October 25th meeting 2-1 in Detroit.

Since winning in Detroit last month, the Sharks have gone 7-7-0. They had dropped three in a row - including two against the Coyotes - before winning their last game, 4-2 in Dallas. The win followed up an 8-0 rout by 27th place Phoenix the previous night. Tonight is the first game of the New Year for the Sharks, who are obviously hoping for a change in fortunes.

Victor Chi of San Jose’s Mercury News focuses on the fact that the Sharks have not won consecutive games since a three-game streal from December 9th to the 12th. In order to motivate the players to play harder, the coaching staff and front office have sent their leading defensive scorer, Matt Carle, and their fourth-highest scorer, Steve Bernier down to the AHL. The team has also had to sit through a video made up of clips in which players were lazy or non-aggressive.

Vesa Toskala should be in net tonight for the Sharks. He is 15-6-0 this season with a 2.39 GAA and a .912 SV%.

In contrast to the Sharks, the Wings had an excellent month of December, posting an 11-3-1 record over 15 games. Since losing to the Wild in overtime on the 23rd, they have won four in a row, with the most recent win coming over the Ducks on Tuesday night. The Wings are kickinng off a five-game road trip that will take them to LA, Anaheim, Colorado, and Phoenix after they leave San Jose. They won’t be back in Detroit until the 12th, according to Ted Kulfan.

Kulfan reports that Babcock had not settled on a starter yesterday. If I had to guess, I’d say it’ll be Chris Osgood. He’s played every other or every third game since coming back from his wrist injury and is due for another start.

Pavel Datsyuk (groin) is going to be re-evaluated today, apparently, but given the team’s caution with injuries this season, it’s unlikely he’ll be in the lineup until Saturday at the earliest. Josh Langfeld will play in Pavel’s place.

Chris Chelios did not fly out with the team, choosing instead to deal with the double homicide that took place in his restaurant Tuesday morning. He’ll join the team when he’s ready. No one has been called up to fill out the roster because the team still has six healthy defensemen.

The Sharks have been having troubles but they’re still a very talented and capable team, with stars like Joe Thornton, Jonathan Cheechoo, and Patrick Marleau, as well as a good goalie in Toskala. The Wings often have trouble on Western road trips (such as their 1-3-0 effort in October), but they do have momentum. They are weaker offensively without Datsyuk, but still have scoring punch and even without Chelios, they have as strong a defense as any team in the league. It should be a good game.

Robbed again: Wings 2, Sharks 3

Published

Matt Saler

on December 3, 2006

in 2006-2007, Game Reports and Sharks

. 3 Comments

I did catch the game last night, but didn’t take notes so I won’t be doing a full summary. I just have a few comments.

The title of this post refers to a play that took place at 3:13 of the first period. On this play, Mathieu Schneider scored a goal from the left wing after manuevering around the Sharks defense. It was a great goal but it was called back. Do you know why? You can probably guess, since it’s happened twice before this season. The referee immediately waived the goal off because Tomas Holmstrom was ruled to be in the crease.

Okay. Maybe he was. Let’s watch the replay: no, he’s not in the paint now … or now … or now … there’s the puck going in … and he’s still not in the crease.

Hmm. Maybe it was contact with the goaltender. Let’s watch again: there’s Toskala at the top of the crease with his glove hand on Homer’s back … he’s practically out of the crease … now he’s backed up and Homer’s near the edge … they’re not touching at all … there’s the puck again. Going into the net. A goal. Right? Wrong.

I swore that if the Wings lost by a goal, I’d be pissed. Well, they did and I am. The other times this season the Wings have been denied a goal due to contact or presence in the paint, I thought they were BS calls but I could see why the official called it that way. Last night, however, there is no way that goal should have been called back. Absolutely no way.

The League needs to clarify the rule. When I, as a long time fan, have no idea why a goal was called back, there’s a problem. They also need to fix the replay policy. There is no way it’s okay for a goal to be overturned like that and if they reviewed every goal and the booth had the power to counter the verdict on the ice, you wouldn’t have actual goals being taken away. It probably wouldn’t be a perfect system but it’d sure as heck be better than what we have now.

I’d hate for something like that to happen when the games actually mean something.

Anyway, as nice as it would have been to have had that goal, I don’t think I can really say that they lost only because they didn’t have it. Frankly, the Wings did not play that well last night. The defense was no where nearly as tight as it has been and the Sharks had Joey MacDonald making some very, very good saves for much of the game. They gave up 35 shots, the most they’ve allowed all season, 19 of which came in the third period.

Dan Cleary’s turnover at the end of the game was tragic, but was just one example of the many times the Wings turned over the puck during the game last night. Once again, they hung MacDonald out to dry defensively and it’s only because he played so well last night that the game was even close. Even if that goal had not been turned over and the Wings had won, it’d have been due to Joey’s play.

One thing that did look better was the power play, which got one goal. I’m glad but they can’t forget to play well defensively as well.

They get a little bit of a reprieve on Tuesday with the Blues. Let’s hope they can spoil Brett Hull’s Retirement Night.

GameDay: vs. San Jose (19-7-0, 38 Pts) 7:00 ET

Published

Matt Saler

on December 2, 2006

in 2006-2007, GameDay and Sharks

. 0 Comments

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.

Wings 4, Sharks 0

Published

Matt Saler

on March 24, 2006

in 2005-2006, Game Reports and Sharks

. 0 Comments

I said this game would be different than the Feb. 28 game but I didn’t think it’d be this different! In easily one of their best defensive efforts of the entire season, the Wings shut down San Jose 4-0 last night at the Joe, continuing a streak of excellence that has got to have the rest of the League watching out (even with the loss Tuesday, they’ve been playing great) for the Red Machine.

I was completely wrong about the starting goalies for both teams: Manny Legace started for the Wings and Evgeni Nabokov was in net for the Sharks. Neither appeared to have much impact on the outcome of the game, however. The Wings were so tight defensively they could have put Darren McCarty in there and still have pitched a shutout while the Sharks were so unimpressive they would have lost no matter who was in net.

Now, I wasn’t able to watch this game as intently as usual because I was distracted by a lot of noisy people around the TV but, even so, I should have noticed Joe Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo a lot more than I did. The reason I didn’t wasn’t because of the chatter going on around me but because of the Draper-Zetterberg-Samuelsson line. Those three held one of the hottest duos in hockey to a mere 3 shots. They were amazing and were the real reason the Wings won last night, although Legace will get credit for the shootout.

As I’ve already said, San Jose was very unimpressive, not like I was expecting at all. The Wings controlled almost the entire game, with the Sharks putting on pressure only sporadically and not very convincingly. It was a combination of a very determined defensive effort by the Wings and a bad game by San Jose at a very bad time for them, I think. They’re still a good team and this game shouldn’t fool anyone into thinking they’d be a roll-over first round opponent.

Mikael Samuelsson played for the first time since March 1 and looked strong, scoring a nice goal in the third to cap off his return. Dan Cleary did not play, giving Mark Mowers another game to show his work ethic. He was on the ice with Franzen and Maltby covering Thornton and Cheechoo when Hank’s line wasn’t out there doing it. Needless to say, they did a good job as well.

The first period was scoreless. It took less than two minutes for the Wings to score in the second, though. Tomas Holmstrom tipped in Mathieu Schneider’s point shot at 1:47, beating Nabokov to his left, just inside the post, after the puck deflected off his defenseman. After the goal, Nik Kronwall did his best Bobby Orr impression and took the puck about as far as the low slot, all by himself for a nice scoring chance.

My notes for the second period aren’t very extensive, probably both because I was distracted and because the Wings controlled the play almost the whole period but in a very uneventful, steady way, it seemed. There was a moderate chance or two during the Sharks’ late period power play but Manny Legace wasn’t asleep and he made the necessary stops.

The third period opened with another Detroit goal, just over a minute in. IwoCPO’s description of the goal is too good not to quote:

R. Lang stepped off the bench and strolled along the right boards, glancing to the glass twice to make sure his hair was ok, then casually stepped in front of a McAuley pass. He slipped it to Jason Williams who fluttered it by Nabokov and it was pretty much over.

Ah, yes. Another seemingly lazy-but-actually-brilliant pass from Robert “Every third shift or so” Lang. Could you please do that more often, Robert? And Jason: nice goal. You could do that a little more often, as well. Thanks.

The Wings scored their third less than two minutes later while on the power play. Lidstrom’s point shot was stopped by Nabokov, with Yzerman and Shanahan out front waiting for the rebound. When it came, The Captain picked it up and slammed it into the wide open net for his 688th goal. If, at this point of the season, a surging Steve Yzerman doesn’t make you quake in your skates, Western Conference, I don’t know what will. Shades of 2002, dare I say it? All that talk about a farewell tour seems really lame now, doesn’t it? He’s not along for the ride, he’s in the driver’s seat.

The fourth, and final goal, came from Mikael Samuelsson. I happened to be writing something down as the play developed but I looked up just in time to see Sammy sneak the puck in short side from the bottom of the left circle after taking the cross-ice pass from Zetterberg. Seriously, Mikael has got to have one of the best wrister/snap shots in the League.

Gotta love this quote from Ron Wilson:

“This was the opposite of the last game. They had five guys missing, and tonight it looked like we did, too. Five or six guys missing.” (via. A2Y)

Good assessment, Ron.

An important win for the Wings, who sent another message to playoff-bound teams, reminding us just how good they are defensively while showing their strength offensively at the same time. (Let this be the team that shows up for the playoffs…. If you’re going to have a slump, have it now, guys.)

Next up, we have Columbus at home tomorrow night at 7:30 ET. A should-win game and therefore one to worry about. (My efforts at keeping my hopes down have made me into a bit of a pessimist, I know.)

Abel to Yzerman game summary

GameDay: vs. San Jose (34-23-10, 78 Pts) 7:30 ET

Published

Matt Saler

on March 23, 2006

in 2005-2006, GameDay and Sharks

. 2 Comments

Tonight is the fourth and final game between these two teams this season. The Wings lead the series 2-1, with wins October 17th (3-2 OT) and November 26th (7-6). The Sharks won the latest meeting 5-1 on February 28th, the first game after the Olympic Break for both teams. Detroit was without their Swedes at the time and were playing with a much depleted roster.

The Wings had a win streak snapped at six games with a shootout loss to Nashville Tuesday night. It was their first game back from a short but important Western Canada road trip over last weekend. They beat both Edmonton and Vancouver but found themselves evenly matched at home against the Preds, losing when Brendan Shanahan failed to match Nashville in the sudden death round of a shootout. The shootout loss gave Detroit a single point, making them the second team to crack 100 points (behind Ottawa, who did it the same night).

There is a bit of a goalie controversy in Detroit at the moment, with both goalies playing well enough to create confusion as to which should be the official starter come playoff time. For now, it seems Mike Babcock’s strategy is to alternate goalies until one screws up. That puts Chris Osgood in net tonight and he’ll be looking to show Manny up after the latter’s glove-hand meltdown on Tuesday.

The Freep reports that Mikael Samuelsson is ready to return and that he’ll play on a line with Johan Franzen and Kris Draper tonight. It also looks like Mark Mowers will get another game in the lineup, as Babcock says Dan Cleary may sit out. Apparently, he spent yesterday at home throwing up and may not be ready to go tonight.

The Sharks have won their last two, beating Colorado 6-5 Sunday and shutting out St. Louis 6-0 Tuesday. They are on the outside of the playoff picture, currently in the 10th spot with 78 points, but they have three games in hand on Vancouver and LA, the 7th and 8th seed teams with 80 and 79 points respectively. The Sharks are in the midst of a five-game road trip that will take them to Minnesota, Chicago and Columbus next before they head back home to face Phoenix twice in a row.

It looks like Vesa Toskala will start tonight, after he stopped 33 shots in St. Louis.

This game will be a bit different than the Feb. 28th matchup. The Wings will be in full force and will hopefully play like it. A win here is important, with Nashville starting to nip at the Wings’ heels (and another game against them coming up in a week) and with the possibility that they could face the Sharks in the first round. It’s a good chance for them to practice shutting down Joe Thornton and Co.

Wings 1, San Jose 5

Published

Kevin List

on February 28, 2006

in 2005-2006, Game Reports and Sharks

. 3 Comments

My name is Kevin List, Brian’s brother, and this is my first post at On the Wings. I’m a freshman at Western Michigan University majoring in education. I’ll fill in for the crew as needed.

The Wings’ pre-Olympic six game win streak came to a halt as the San Jose Sharks won 5-1 in the HP Pavilion Center. Specific to tonight, the Wings came into the game with a 9-1-4 record against the Sharks, and hoped to sqeeze out a victory. The Wings had been the last team to not have lost by 3 or more goals coming into tonight’s game. However, several factors spawned a gradual downfall on the Wing’s strength throughout the game. In addition the absence of Lidstrom, Zetterburg, Holmstrom, Samuelsson, and Kronwall, because of Olympic festivities, hurt the Wings leading edge. All the Sharks goals came on the man-advantage. Manny Legace got the start for the Wings, and had 27 saves with 32 shots on goal, including his first penalty shot save. Vesa Toskala got the start for the Sharks, and had 28 saves with 29 shots on goal. Legace held a strong edge early in the game, but later fell apart in the third period. Numerous penalties from the Wing’s defensive line contributed to Legace’s downfall later in the game. These on the man-advantages allowed the Sharks to enact several tactical power play set-ups. Jonathan Cheechoo and Joe Thorton were two key players for the Sharks, who made many of the Shark’s power play advantages successful.

First Period

The Wings opened the game with a power play advantage, after a holding penalty against Christian Ehrhoff eighteen seconds into the first period. Two minutes later, the penalty is offset by a tripping penalty against Kopecky. This gave the Sharks a chance to put forth their strong offensive line and establish several set up opportunities in the Wings territory early into the game. With the power play at hand, Thorton tipped the puck in front of the net to the left side to Ekman, who knocked it in for a garbage goal.

This early score by the Sharks gave the Wings a wake up call to step up their defensive strategies. Because of this, the Wings failed to establish any aggressive action in the Shark zone for the second half of the first period. Instead, the Wings worked on keeping their own area secure from the Shark’s advancements.

During this time, the play went nearly nine minutes without any stoppage. Chechoo and Preissing both got a chance to make shots on Legace, however their attempts ended up in the puck going wide of the goal post. After the Shark’s failed efforts, Williams turned the puck over and got a piece of Toskala, with a slap shot on goal with only fifty-five seconds remaining, which was stopped at the net. The first period ends in the Shark zone.

Second Period

The second period started off in Shark territory with a shot opportunity made by Chelios, which went wide. Lebda made another wrist shot attempt, which his was stopped by Toskala. The play was then directed back into the Wing’s zone, where Marleau sent the puck to Michalek, who hit it off the right bar of the goal post. The Sharks got their first powerplay of the second period with an interference call on Chelios at 5:43.

Marleau took this opportunity to bring set the puck up once again in the Wing’s zone. After his failed wrist shot, Mohalic recovered the puck and shot it off the cross bar, just missing Lagace’s glove. During this play, Multby recieved a penalty for hooking, which turned the player ratio to a 5 on 3. The Wing’s defensive line put Legace in a bad situation, by receiving penalties that consistently gave the Sharks on the man advantages.

With a large gap in the Wings defensive line, the Sharks immediately took the weight of the game to the Wing zone to set up another on goal attempt. At 6:54, Thorton shot the puck to around the back of the net, where Chechoo made a backhand goal on the left side. At 18:29, the Wing’s luck finally turned around. In the Shark zone, Datsyuk tips the puck off to Shanahan, and sets it up to Lebda. He gets a shot to the left side of Toskala for a goal. This marks Lebda’s 4th shot on goal in the game and his 3rd goal overall in the season. At the end of the period, the Sharks lead at 1-2.

Third Period

The Wings started the third period out strong and began to play the out of the offensive zone. Lang turned the puck over and was the first to take a shot on Toskala. It is then recovered by Schnieder for another failed slap shot. Ekman soon turned the puck back to the Wings zone. At 4:50, Wooley recieved a hooking penalty by tripping up Michalek with his stick.

Four seconds later, Ekman gets a hooking penalty, making the player ratio 4-4 on the ice. Lang tried to sweep the puck back into the shark zone and makes a shot to the wide right of Toskala. Datsyuk retrieved the puck and weaved around Mclaren and McCuley to get another piece of Toskala, however, the shot went wide. The game is, again, directed back into the defensive end, by Marleau.

At about 7:15, Williams holds Ekman on a breakaway, causing him to fall into the Wing’s net. This resulted in Ekman taking a first-time penalty shot against Legace. Ekman’s side-to-side movement did not fool Legace, who mirrored his every move before the net. Ekman approached the goal late and snaped the puck low on the right side, deflecting off Legace’s glove. This was quite a big missed opportunity for Sharks.

Later into the period, the Wings defense began to fall apart once more. At 4:50, Woolley was caught with a hooking penalty, setting the Wings back one man. However the Wing’s short hand was short lived as Ekman received a hooking penalty seven seconds following. The Wing’s temporarly gain strength with a couple won face-offs and more action in the Shark zone. Draper and Lebda particularly played the puck well during this time and set up a couple key wrist shots in front of the goal, making Toskala a bit nervous.

Old mistakes, however, set in once more for the Wing’s defense. At 10:17, Schneider is caught with a holding penalty in the offensive zone. This failed maneuver set the Wings back once again and gave the Sharks another power play to taunt Legace. Thorton does not pass up his on the man opportunity. He won the face-off against Multby and brought the play into the Wing’s zone. He made a wrist shot on Legace, but it went wide of the net. Ekman retrieved the puck and set it up to Marleau, who banged the puck on the side of the crease, making a goal on Legace. At 11:10, Shanahan got the Wings a penalty for tripping in the defensive zone.

The Sharks used another power play opportunity to get the play into the Detroit end. At 11:41, Ehrhoff got the puck set up for a wrist shot goal. He was assisted by Marleau, and Ekman helped to screen Legace before front of the net. The Wing’s built up tensions finally snapped when a fight broke out in front of the Shark net. Cleary began the brawl by knocking Thorton to the ice and taking a few good swings at him. The center of the conflict then was directed to Berneir and Mowers, who started their own fist fight as well. The referees immediately broke up the play and took Bernier and Mowers to the penalty box with roughing calls.

At 13:48, Thorton made a power play goal on Legace, with an assist by Ehrhoff. Two minutes later, Doug Murray made a cheep hit on Multby from behind and resulted given a Boarding penalty on the Sharks. This power play gave the Wings an opportunity to set up one last advance into the Shark zone. Datsyuk tipped the puck to Shanahan, who made a slap shot on Toskala from 16 feet away. The puck was covered up by Toskala and stopped the play. Lang brought the puck back into the Shark territory and made a backhand shot, which was almost knocked with the help of Shanahan’s amazing lacrosse skills. However, the Wing’s last chances to make an impact in the game quickly went sour, and the game soon ended in the neutral zone. The final score: Wings 1, San Jose 5.

Lines*

Cleary-Maltby-Draper
Mowers-Draper-Shanahan
Yzerman-Lang-Williams
Mowers-Kopecky-Shanahan
Franzen-Datsyuk-Shanahan
Kopecky-Mowers-Lang
Draper-Franzen-Maltby
Draper-Franzen-Datsyuk
Datsyuk-Shanahan-Cleary
Mowers-Kopecky-Datsyuk
Mowers-Kopecky-Yzerman
Williams-Lang-Cleary
Draper-Kopecky-Mowers
Williams-Lang-Shanahan
Mowers-Draper-Yzerman
Lang-Williams
Draper-Maltby
Franzen-Cleary
Draper-Cleary

D-pairings

Chelios-Schneider
Lebda-Schneider
Lebda-Chelios
Lebda-Lilja
Schneider-Woolley
Woolley-Chelios
Schneider-Lilja
Chelios-Lilja
Rivers-Lilja
Rivers-Chelios
Rivers-Woolley
Schneider-Rivers
Rivers-Lebda

Williams-Lang-Datsyuk-Shanahan-Schneider
Yzerman-Draper-Mowers-Ledba-Woolley
Draper-Kopecky-Williams-Shanahan-Schneider

*compiled by Brian

GameDay: @ San Jose (27-21-8, 62 Pts) 10:30 PM

Published

Matt Saler

on February 28, 2006

in 2005-2006, GameDay and Sharks

. 4 Comments

Tonight, the Wings return to NHL action with their third (of four) game against the San Jose Sharks. They are 2-0 against the Sharks this year, with wins October 17th (3-2 OT) and November 26th (7-6). The October game was when Kris Draper took a puck to the face, causing him to wear a visor, by the way.

Before the Olympic Break, the Wings were on a 6-0 tear, with two wins over Nashville (essentially locking up the Central title) and Colorado (sweeping the season series) as well as less challenging wins over St. Louis and Minnesota. That was with their full roster and one that was able to pick up momentum that will since have been largely lost, due to the two-week interruption that was the 2006 Winter Olympics.

The Wings will be short five of their best players for tonight’s game, the Swedes Tomas Holmstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Nick Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall and Mikael Samuelsson, who won’t have made it back to the States in time after participating in celebrations in Sweden for having won the gold medal Sunday.

In response to a report by TSN yesterday that stated players returning late from the Olympics could face fines, GM Ken Holland has said he will not issue any fines, according to the Freep. Head coach Mike Babcock is understanding of the Swedes’ decision to go to Stockholm rather than Detroit or San Jose and confident that the Wings will be able to find a way to win without them tonight. It’s not as though the team doesn’t have experience being undermanned. In 2003-2004, they were plagued with injures so badly that at one point they were down 10 regulars. Still, they ended with the league’s best record, as Ansar Khan points out today.

It looked like the Wings will also be without Pavel Datsyuk, who has been having travel issues but the Freep reports he is expected to be back in time for the game. He suffered a broken finger before headed to Torino but it hasn’t seemed to have affected his play. He finished the tournament with one goal and seven assists through eight games.

Tomas Kopecky has been brought up from the minors to help fill the holes and the usual substitutes (Brett Lebda, Mark Mowers, Jamie Rivers) will be inserted into the lineup as well. 19 players will dress for the team tonight.

Since he is officially “the guy” now, Manny Legace will be in net for the Wings.

The Sharks are third in the Pacific Division with 62 points and don’t have much hope at all of catching Dallas, the division leader (79). They have won their last three games, however, including a 6-3 win over the Stars on the 10th. They’re trying to pass Edmonton for the Conference’s eighth playoff spot so this is a potential playoff matchup tonight. Goalie Evgeni Nabokov is expected back from the Olympics today but newly re-signed goalie Vesa Toskala will get the start. Joe Thornton is expected back from Torino in time for the game tonight as well and will play if he is.

It should be an interesting game. Most of the players on both teams will be very well rested and that is both a good and a bad thing. It’ll probably be a pretty messy game as both teams get back in the saddle but the Sharks will have the advantage of not missing a good chunk of their lineup. The Wings are more than competent without their Swedes but San Jose is a good team and would love to take a bite out of the league leaders.