SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Red Wings forward Johan Franzen won't be available for tonight's game.
The Wings take on the San Jose Sharks at 10 (NBCSN, FSD) at HP Pavilion. Pavel Datsyuk is making his return after being out since Feb. 21 after knee surgery, but Franzen looks to be out because of back spasms that caused him to leave practice early on Friday.
The lines that are skating are:
Valtteri Filppula-Henrik Zetterberg-Jiri Hudler
Danny Cleary-Pavel Datsyuk-Todd Bertuzzi
Drew Miller-Darren Helm-Justin Abdelkader
Tomas Holmstrom-Cory Emmerton-Jan Mursak
The Wings are looking to halt a three-game losing streak.
"It's very similar to when we lost the six in a row earlier in the season," Bertuzzi said. "It's unacceptable, not good enough. We're just been careless. It's time to buck up and get ourselves ready. We've got 11 games left to get ourselves prepared and get ourselves back winning again."
The Wings are 1-2 against San Jose this season. The Sharks are fighting to secure a playoff spot and have shored up their hold with five points in the last six games. Sharks coach Todd McLellan called tonight "a relatively easy game to prepare for," because the teams have played each other so much going back two years of meeting in the playoffs.
"It's a very tough game to play," he said. "They're dynamic offensively, they hold onto pucks, they're everything that they've been over the past few years. Jimmy Howard gives them a chance to win every night. You've got to find a way to get three against them, because they're probably going to get at least two."
But how about playing them without Nicklas Lidstrom? "We haven't had an opportunity to do that yet," McLellan said. "He means a lot to that team, obviously, I'm well aware of that from just the locker room out. The rest of the hockey world gets to see him play every night, and when you combine both, he's as good as there is.
"Not having him in is certainly an advantage for us."
Franzen didn't talk to reporters. He was at the arena to get treatment, and he did at least look more comfortable walking than he did the day before.
Goaltender Joey MacDonald, another guy who is dealing with a sore back, is out indefinitely. He's scheduled to have an MRI on Monday to, as he put it, hopefully rule out that his pain might stem from a herniated disc. He had surgery for that in '06, and doesn't want to repeat the experience. He's been in a fair bit of pain, though, dating back to Wednesday's game against Anaheim.
"It's kind of a spasm," he said. "I felt it coming on in the second period and it just kind of got worse and worse and I just kind of battled through it for the rest of the game. But yesterday it was really bad, just stiff. It's not fun."
MacDonald described his pain as "more or less a nerve going down my leg. Kind of concerned about that a little bit. But can't really do anything until we get a picture and see how it is."
Jordan Pearce is with the Wings at the moment to serve as backup to Jimmy Howard. If need be, they can bring up Ty Conklin, who's gone a respectable 7-4 with a .916 save percentage and 2.35 goals-against average since being sent to the minors last month.
Contact Helene St. James: 313-222-2295 or hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @freepwings.
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