CSN Bay Area

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

Where they stand
Sharks: 30-23-8, 68 points, 5th Pacific Division
Red Wings: 33-15-11, 77 points, 3rd Atlantic Division

The latest

Sharks: Playing outdoors at Levi’s Stadium, the Sharks lost 2-1 to the Kings on Saturday. Brent Burns had the only San Jose goal, but was caught in the neutral zone on Marian Gaborik’s game-winner in the third period. Officially the Sharks have lost six straight home games (0-4-2), including their last five at SAP Center, where they play seven of their next eight. The Sharks, 3-6-2 in their last 11, host the Senators on Saturday and Canadiens on Monday.

Red Wings: Detroit didn’t do the Sharks any favors on Tuesday, getting shut out by the Kings at Staples Center, 1-0. Los Angeles’ Justin Williams was the only goal scorer, while Detroit goalie Jonas Gustavsson stopped 26 of 27 in the defeat. The Red Wings are 2-1-1 on a six-game road trip that concludes in Nashville on Saturday, but just 2-3-2 in their last seven overall.

Keep an eye on…

Sharks: Logan Couture. The 25-year-old was arguably the Sharks’ best player against the Kings on Saturday, but couldn’t put one in despite five shots on goal and a crossbar. Couture, who has at least one point in seven of the last nine games, is apparently back on a line with Patrick Marleau and Tommy Wingels, and has six goals (and 11 points) in 13 career regular season games vs. Detroit.

Red Wings: Gustav Nyquist. After marinating in the minors for some time, the 25-year-old burst onto the scene in 2013-14 and is currently tied for second on the Red Wings with 21 goals. A fourth round pick in 2008, Nyquist was part of Team Sweden’s silver medal at the Olympics last year. He’s still looking for his first point against the Sharks in what will be his fourth game vs. San Jose.

Sharks
Goals per game: 2.77 (16th)
Goals-against per game: 2.77 (22nd)
Power play: 20.5 percent (7th)
Penalty kill: 80.4 percent (21st)

Red Wings
Goals per game: 2.88 (8th)
Goals-against per game: 2.46 (8th)
Power play: 25.2 percent (1st)
Penalty kill: 83.2 percent (9th)

Probable lines

Sharks
Melker Karlsson – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Patrick Marleau – Logan Couture – Tommy Wingels
Tomas Hertl – James Sheppard – Matt Nieto
Tyler Kennedy – Chris Tierney – Andrew Desjardins

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon - Justin Braun
Matt Irwin – Scott Hannan

Antti Niemi
Alex Stalock

Red Wings
Tomas Tatar – Pavel Datsyuk – Darren Helm
Gustav Nyquist – Riley Sheahan – Justin Abdelkader
Drew Miller – Luke Glendening – Tomas Jurco
Teemu Pulkkinen – Stephen Weiss – Joakim Andersson

Jonathan Ericsson – Nuklas Kronwall
Jakub Kindl – Dan DeKeyser
Brendan Smith – Alexey Marchenko

Jimmy Howard
Jonas Gustavsson

Injuries/Scratches

Sharks: Raffi Torres (right knee), Mike Brown (broken right fibula) and Tye McGinn (upper body) are out.

Red Wings: Kyle Quincey (lower body) and Henrik Zetterberg (head) are day-to-day. Johan Franzen (concussion) is out.

Season/All-Time series

The Sharks and Red Wings meet again in exactly one month at Joe Louis Arena for the second and final time. San Jose is 29-46-9 all-time against Detroit, and 11-2-1 in the last 14. The Sharks won both games last season, including a 1-0 shootout win in Detroit.

San Jose is 13-6-2 against the Red Wings under Todd McLellan, a former assistant coach in Detroit under Mike Babcock.

Odds and ends

*The Red Wings are 12-1-0 when leading after the first period, while the Sharks are 15-1-1.

*Daniil Tarasov was removed from injured reserve (lower body) and reassigned to Worcester on Thursday morning.

*San Jose entered the 1997-98 season with a 2-20-1 record against Detroit.

*Tommy Wingels registered 11 hits on Saturday vs. Los Angeles.

*Brent Burns is second in the NHL among defensemen with 16 goals.

*Joe Pavelski is second in the NHL with 16 power play goals.

*Pavel Datsyuk has seven points (4g, 3a) in the last four games, including four points against Dallas on Feb. 21.

*Mike Babcock is two points shy of reaching 1000 as a head coach.

Quotable

“That little break away to spend time with the family or do whatnot – sometimes we get so caught up thinking about hockey all the time, it can consume you. That’s good sometimes, not so good others.” – Scott Hannan