Ansar Khan of Mlive.com writes that Red Wings goaltender Chris Osgood is pain free after and hopes to participate in practice drills Wednesday. Osgood still hopes to return this season.
“It was encouraging because there really was no pain at all today, just a matter of getting confident enough to move so I can stretch my leg to that one side,” Osgood said Tuesday, after the morning skate. “Hopefully tomorrow I’ll practice with the guys a little bit, just every day bump it up a little bit.”
Osgood’s status is a huge factor in whether or not the Wings will be buyers at the trade deadline which comes around Monday, February 28th.
Osgood says he is hoping to return during the West Coast trip that begins Sunday in Los Angeles. Osgood however admits that a West Coast return may be a bit optimistic and a definitive date cannot be set.
When undergoing sports hernia surgery on January 11th, Osgood mentioned that a few other problems were found.
“I thought I was just going to get my hernia done and it was two other things,” Osgood said. “It definitely was in the back of my mind that I wasn’t going to come back this year, just because there were so many issues I had. But now that everything has been done I feel a lot stronger, a lot better.
Tonight the Wings take on the San Jose Sharks who look slightly different then the last time these two teams met on December 6th. Since then the Sharks have added forwards Ben Eager and Kyle Wellwood and defenseman Ian White.
In one other note, Wings defenseman Ruslan Salei plays in his 900th NHL game.
Here are tonight’s lineups according to Ansar Khan of Mlive.com…
Franzen-Zetterberg-Bertuzzi
Hudler-Datsyuk-Cleary
Draper-Helm-Eaves
Miller-Abdelkader-Holmstrom
Lidstrom-Stuart
Ericsson-Rafalski
Kronwall-Salei
Howard (starting)
MacDonald
Here is San Jose’s anticipated lineup:
Patrick Marleau-Joe Thornton-Devin Setoguchi
Dany Heatley-Joe Pavelski-Torrey Mitchell
Ryane Clowe-Logan Couture-Kyle Wellwood
Ben Eager-Jamal Mayers-John McCarthy
Douglas Murray-Dan Boyle
Marc-Edouard Vlassic-Jason Demers
Niclas Wallin-Ian White
Antti Niemi (starting)
Carter Hutton
Center Scott Nichol, defenseman Kent Huskins and goalie Antero Niittymaki are injured.
Source: Mlive.com
