NHL Gameday: Boedker Back in as Sharks Look to Halt Losing Streak

Programming note – Sharks-Red Wings coverage starts today at 7:00 p.m. with Sharks Pregame Live on CSN California

WHERE THEY STAND

Sharks: 23-14-2, 48 points, 2nd Pacific Division
Red Wings: 17-17-5, 39 points, 7th Atlantic Division

PREGAME NEWS AND NOTES

***For the third time this season the Sharks are winless in three straight games, going 0-2-1. They've never let a losing streak get to four games, though, and will attempt to get back into the win column against a Red Wings team that smoked them pretty good at Joe Louis Arena on Oct. 22, 3-0.

"They skated around us. We weren't very good that night," Logan Couture recalled. "Could have been a lot worse than 3-0."

Detroit will be playing the fifth of a six-game road swing, going 2-1-1 so far. The Red Wings are 10-7-2 on the road this season, but have incredibly not scored a road power play goal in their last 16 games, going 0-for-50 over than span.

***Detroit has injuries to several key players, particularly on defense, as noted below. That's not of much concern to San Jose, though.

"That's when you get into trouble, when you look at their lineup and see guys you don't recognize," Couture said. "They're a fast team that plays the game hard."

Pete DeBoer said: "They're a deep enough organization that you wouldn't know they have injuries. Their fourth line looks good, their six defensemen look good. … That really doesn't bear anything on what we're doing."

Marc-Edouard Vlasic and David Schlemko remain out for San Jose. Regarding Vlasic, who will miss his fourth in a row after getting hit in the face with a shot on Dec. 30, DeBoer said he "needs a little more time. It was a significant injury."

***Mikkel Boedker will return to the Sharks' lineup after the key offseason addition was a healthy scratch for Thursday's loss to Minnesota. He'll slot in on the fourth line.

"He deserves to get back in there," DeBoer said. "It was kind of a message sent, but like I said when we sat him, the 10 games leading up to Christmas he was our best player a lot of nights. He doesn't deserve to sit more than the one game."

DeBoer indicated earlier that Boedker took his "foot off the gas" against Los Angeles on Jan. 3, but Boedker didn't see it that way.

"I think you never agree with getting sat, right? I don't think there's any player that agrees with it, and I don't agree with it either, but no player in history has ever agreed with getting sat out," said the 27-year-old. 

"You've just got to stay with it, and got to stay professional and make sure you do your job when you get back in the lineup. Today is a new opportunity to do good things out there, and to contribute to the team."

Martin Jones starts in net for San Jose, opposing first-year goalie Jared Coreau, who is coming off of his first shutout in Los Angeles on Jan. 5 (34 saves).

KEEP AN EYE ON...

Sharks: Joel Ward. The winger recorded his first multiple-point game of the season on Thursday, ending a 16-game goal drought and setting up linemate Patrick Marleau for another. Ward, who continues to get time on the top power play unit, has 12 goals and 19 points in 29 career games against Detroit.

Red Wings: Anthony Mantha. The Wings' first round pick in 2013 (20th overall), Mantha, 22, has at least one point in seven of the last eight games with 11 total (6g, 5a) over that span. The 6-5, 221-pounder and former MVP of the Quebec junior league in 2014 has been playing alongside Henrik Zetterberg.

PROBABLE LINES

Sharks
Timo Meier – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Kevin Labanc – Logan Couture – Joonas Donskoi
Patrick Marleau – Chris Tierney – Joel Ward
Melker Karlsson – Tommy Wingels – Mikkel Boedker

Paul Martin – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon – Justin Braun
Mirco Mueller – Dylan DeMelo

Martin Jones (starter)
Aaron Dell

Red Wings
Tomas Tatar – Henrik Zetterberg – Anthony Mantha
Gustav Nyquist – Frans Nielsen – Thomas Vanek
Andreas Athanasiou – Dylan Larkin – Luke Glendening
Drew Miller – Riley Sheahan – Steve Ott

Dan DeKeyser – Nick Jensen
Jonathan Ericsson – Ryan Sproul
Xavier Ouellet – Alexey Marchanko

Jared Coreau (starter)
Petr Mrazek

INJURIES

Sharks: David Schlemko (upper body), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (face) and Tomas Hertl (right knee sprain) are out.

Red Wings: Brendan Smith (lower body), Justin Abdelkader (sprained MCL), Mike Green (undisclosed), Jimmy Howard (sprained MCL), Darren Helm (dislocated shoulder), Niklas Kronwall (lower body) and Joe Vitale (concussion) are out.

QUOTEABLE

"Just got to continue playing. I think I was playing pretty well. Had some good games, some strong games. Just got to capitalize on some chances, and then we'll go from there." – Mikkel Boedker

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