On March 31, 1928

The legendary Gordie Howe was born in Floral, Saskatchewan.

After a 3-1-0 West Coast trip, Detroit comes back to The Joe to take on the first-place Blackhawks in an Original Six showdown.

Welcome to the Detroit Red Wings Game Day Blog, where you can get behind-the-scenes information, thoughts from players and staff, and up-to-date news on anything and everything Red Wings on game day.

You can watch today's 12:30 PM game on NBC or NHL Network, or tune in on 97.1 The Ticket or AM1270.

Pavel Datsyuk Dekes Logan Couture
Pavel Datsyuk shows off some fancy stickwork to Logan Couture causing him to fall to the ice.

Jimmy Howard was great, but a couple bad bounces led to Sharks goals as Detroit fell to San Jose, 2-0.

Thanks for tuning into our Game Day Blog...we'll see you on Sunday when we take on the Blackhawks at The Joe!

Tonight's Stars of the Game powered by Ram Trucks are...

1. Antti Niemi (27 SV, SO)

2. Joe Pavelski (1 Goal)

3. Jimmy Howard (22 SV, .917 SV%)

Darren Helm	Todd Bertuzzi	Mikael Samuelsson	Kyle Quincey
Helm (Back)	Bertuzzi (Back)	Samuelsson (Finger)	Quincey (Facial Injury)
Carlo Colaiacovo	Kent Huskins	Patrick Eaves
Colaiacovo (Healthy Scratch)	Huskins (Healthy Scratch)	Eaves (Healthy Scratch)

Johan Franzen	Pavel Datsyuk	Justin Abdelkader
Valtteri Filppula	Henrik Zetterberg	Drew Miller
Daniel Cleary	Joakim Andersson	Damien Brunner
Gustav Nyquist	Cory Emmerton	Jordin Tootoo
Niklas Kronwall	Jonathan Ericsson
Brendan Smith	Brian Lashoff
Jakub Kindl	Ian White
Jimmy Howard

Howard

"It's definitely been a good road trip so far, and tonight we have a chance to make it a great road trip." - Jimmy Howard told Ansar Khan

Jimmy Howard will start in net.

Howard

McLellan

"Different team, same weapons, same mindset, play the game the same way, led by Kronwall, Datsyuk and Zetterberg, so that's a pretty good core. And Jimmy Howard gives them a chance to win every night." - Sharks coach Todd McLellan told Khan

Jordin Tootoo is expected back in the lineup tonight after being a healthy scratch in Phoenix.

Tootoo

Eaves

Patrick Eaves is expected to be a healthy scratch.

Mike Babcock plans on sticking with the same six D-Men as last game.

Babcock

Go After the Sharks Early - San Jose played Anaheim last night and Detroit is well rested. The Wings have to attack and force the play into the Sharks' zone out of the gate.

Win the 1-on-1 Battles - The Sharks will probably want to play physical. It's important to win these battles and come away with the puck; the Wings have to match San Jose's physical play.

Keep Rolling on the Power Play - It really is a bonus to score on the PP. Detroit has at least 1 PP goal in their last 8 games. Getting shots through and retrieving rebounds are key and the Wings have done that during this stretch.