Red Wings at Sharks
The road-challenged San Jose Sharks return home from a three-game trek to face the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday. San Jose suffered its eighth loss in 11 games away from home on Tuesday, dropping a 3-2 decision in Nashville. Patrick Marleau scored with 1:22 remaining in the third period, but the Sharks were unable to get the equalizer.
Unlike San Jose, Detroit has thrived on the road, earning at least one point in 10 of its last 11 away from home (7-1-3). The Red Wings began a five-game trip with a 5-1 triumph at Dallas on Saturday as captain Henrik Zetterberg scored twice and Joakim Andersson snapped a tie with the first of four unanswered goals by the visitors. Detroit looks to avenge a 1-0 shootout loss at home on Oct. 21, when Logan Couture scored the only goal of the bonus format.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, FSN (Detroit), CSN California (San Jose)
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (19-14-10): Pavel Datsyuk, who missed Saturday's victory with a lower-body injury, is questionable to return against San Jose. Datsyuk received some good news Tuesday, however, as he was selected to represent host Russia at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi next month. Detroit is one of three teams (St. Louis and Chicago) with 10 players heading to the Winter Games, including six for Team Sweden - Zetterberg, Daniel Alfredsson, Johan Franzen, defensemen Niklas Kronwall and Jonathan Ericsson and goaltender Jonas Gustavsson.
ABOUT THE SHARKS (27-11-6): Couture had quite the disappointing day Tuesday, electing to undergo surgery for a lingering upper-body injury which will keep him sidelined three to four weeks before learning he was not included on the Canadian Olympic roster. "It's been tough," Couture told TSN. "Getting the call (Tuesday) morning that I wasn't on the team was very difficult." Captain Joe Thornton, who had his eight-game assist streak snapped in Nashville, also was left off Team Canada while Marleau and defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic were named to the squad.
OVERTIME
1. San Jose has four players who will participate in the Winter Games - Marleau, Vlasic, C Joe Pavelski (United States) and G Antti Niemi, who was selected to represent Finland on Tuesday.
2. G Jimmy Howard (United States), LW Tomas Tatar and RW Tomas Jurco (Slovakia) round out Detroit's 10 Olympic representatives.
3. Marleau's goal against Nashville was his 20th of the season, marking the 12th time in his 16-year career he has reached the plateau.