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Rafalski still a question mark tonight against the Sharks, tonight's possible lineups

The Wings try to bounce back after Wednesday night’s tough overtime loss to Anaheim when they take on the San Jose Sharks from the HP Pavilion tonight at 10:30PM ET.

Starting in goal tonight will be Joey MacDonald who is 3-3-1, with a 2.39 goals-against average and .914 save percentage. He is 0-2 lifetime against the Sharks with a 3.29 GAA and .906 save percentage.

Questionable tonight is Wings defenseman Brian Rafalski who has been out the past three games with back spasms. According to Ansar Khan of Mlive.com Rafalski stated Wednesday night that he was looking to return tonight.

Kris Draper on the other hand will likely be back in the lineup tonight after being scratched last night.

Here are tonight’s anticipated lineups according to Khan…

Franzen-Zetterberg-Bertuzzi
Hudler-Datsyuk-Cleary
Filppula-Modano-Holmstrom
Draper-Helm-(Abdelkader or Miller)

Lidstrom-Stuart
Ericsson-Kronwall
Kindl-Salei

If Rafalski plays, he’d likely be paired with Ericsson, moving Kronwall with Salei and scratching Kindl.

The Sharks will be without their best defenseman, Dan Boyle, who will miss his third game in a row due to an upper-body injury.

Here are San Jose’s anticipated lines and defense pairings:

Logan Couture-Joe Thornton-Devin Setoguchi
Ryane Clowe-Patrick Marleau-Dany Heatley
Torrey Mitchell-Joe Pavelski-Kyle Wellwood
Ben Eager-John McCarthy-Jamal Mayers

Marc-Edouard Vlasic-Jason Demers
Niclas Wallin-Ian White
Justin Braun-Douglas Murray

Antti Niemi (starting)
Carter Hutton

Niemi is 4-1-1 lifetime vs. Detroit (2.14 GAA, .927 save percentage).

Source: Mlive.com

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