At 14:02 of the third period in the Chicago/Carolina game, video review confirmed the referee's call on the ice that the puck deflected by Jiri Tlusty hit the crossbar of the Chicago net. No Goal.

According to Canadiens coach Jacques Martin, Montreal's top defenseman is ready to make a big step in his quest to return to the lineup.

Martin told reporters today that Andrei Markov is about 1-2 weeks away from practicing with the team.

Markov hasn't played since Nov. 13, 2010, when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. He was just seven games into his return from surgery on the same knee the previous spring.

Markov has been in Florida rehabilitating under the supervision of Dr. James Andrews.

Oilers defenseman Ryan Whitney, who missed the first four games of the season with an injury, now could miss up to three weeks with a different ailment.

The Edmonton Journal is reporting Whitney will miss about three weeks with a sprained knee suffered in Tuesday's win against the Vancouver Canucks. The injury likely happened when he got tangled with teammate Corey Potter in the first period and limped off the ice. He played six shifts, but just one after the halfway point of the first.

Whitney missed the final 47 games of last season, and the first four this season, recovering from an ankle injury.

He made his season debut Oct. 18, and in four games was scoreless with one shot.

DETROIT -- San Jose Sharks forward Torrey Mitchell skated this morning here at Joe Louis Arena, but it doesn't look like he'll make a return to the lineup tonight against the Red Wings.

Sharks coach Todd McLellan said his third line -- where Mitchell had been slotted at left wing before sustaining an upper-body injury last week -- most likely will be comprised of Jamie McGinn, Michal Handzus and Benn Ferriero.

Mitchell, who has missed the last two games, apparently is making good headway in his recovery.

"He's very close," McLellan said.

DETROIT -- After assisting on Logan Couture's shorthanded goal in a 3-1 victory against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday, Sharks forward Martin Havlat has some wondering if he and Couture might soon see more time on the penalty kill.

Havlat has played just three games after missing the first four with an upper-body injury, but he's got 3 assists and a plus-1 rating while playing catch-up from a physical standpoint. Couture, meanwhile, is off to a solid start, with 2 goals and 2 assists in seven games.

"(Havlat's) into basically exhibition game No. 4 tonight (against Detroit), whereas everybody else is a month ahead of him," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "We're going to manage his minutes and put him in situations that we think he can be successful. We talked about maybe taking some of the penalty-killing minutes away from some of our bigger players and distributing them evenly. Logan could potentially be one of those guys. So, yeah, they will get penalty-killing time. Yes, the goal was very important and we needed it, but for now we'll continue to manage it the way we are."

DETROIT -- San Jose coach Todd McLellan said people will just have to wait until tonight to see what his final lineup looks like, but the way the Sharks practiced at their morning skate this morning might be a clue.

The first two defense pairings were the same, but the third was comprised of 23-year-old Jason Demers and 24-year old Justin Braun. Braun was just recalled from Worcester of the American Hockey League last weekend and has started on the third pairing with veteran Jim Vandermeer in the last two games.

"If we're out there together tonight, it will be good," said Braun, who had an assist and a plus-2 rating in three games with Worcester before being called up. "Jason's got great experience and I think we'll just pick each other up and keep the confidence going."

Braun had 2 goals and 9 assists in 29 games with the Sharks last season. Getting a chance to face the Red Wings this season is something he's looking forward to doing, regardless of what the lineup looks like.

"You look over there and they've got some pretty good hands," he said of the Red Wings. "You've just got to not overcommit, contain and wait for them to kind of make a mistake and make good passes all night."

Here are the projected lineups for tonight's game between the Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center:

OILERS
Jordan Eberle - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Taylor Hall
Ryan Smyth - Shawn Horcoff - Ryan Jones
Magnus Paajarvi - Eric Belanger - Sam Gagner
Ben Eager - Anton Lander - Lennart Petrell

Tom Gilbert - Ladislav Smid
Theo Peckham - Corey Potter
Cam Barker - Andy Sutton

Devan Dubnyk is expected to start in goal with Nikolai Khabibulin serving as his backup.

AVALANCHE
David Jones - Paul Stastny - Milan Hejduk
Gabriel Landeskog - Ryan O'Reilly - Daniel Winnik
Joakim Lindstrom - Matt Duchene - Chuck Kobasew
Cody McLeod - Jay McClement - Kevin Porter

Jan Hejda - Erik Johnson
Shane O'Brien - Kyle Quincey
Ryan Wilson - Ryan O'Byrne

Semyon Varlamov is expected to start in goal with Jean-Sebastien Giguere serving as his backup.
     

CALGARY -- The St. Louis Blues will turn to Brian Elliott tonight in hopes of pushing their season-high winning streak to four games.

Elliott has started the last three contests for the Blues and has allowed just four goals on 97 shots in that span. In all, Elliott is 4-0-0 with a 1.59 goals-against average and .950 save percentage this season.

"It's a decision based on performance and how the team is playing and what we feel he can give us tonight," Blues coach Davis Payne said.

The move leaves a struggling Jaroslav Halak on the bench.

"We know Jaro's a guy we're going to continue to lean on," Payne said. "He's a good goaltender. He's going to get that chance to go back in as well. Right now we feel we're making decisions based on what gives our team success tonight."

The Blues have already found success against Calgary this season, defeating the Flames 5-2 on Oct. 10. Calgary will look to even the season series and will be aided by the return of Curtis Glencross, who was absent from Wednesday's 4-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche.

Though there was optimism Glencross could play against Colorado, the team opted to err on the side of caution and kept him out of the lineup. The extra time to recover was important, Glencross said.

"You don't want something that lingers and something that's nagging the whole time," he said. "If you come back a little early then you're hurt for a couple weeks. It was good to get a couple days and get some treatment. I feel good now."

Calgary went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen in his absence. Head coach Brent Sutter said he liked what he saw out of the lineup, which allowed defenseman Anton Babchuk to draw back into the lineup.

"Tonight there's probably a good chance it could happen again," Sutter said. "I thought it worked well the other night. It was good to see Babs back in the lineup and playing. He was a key contributor to our third goal on the power play and we can use his shot on the power play. I never wanted to take any other defense out of the lineup. By doing that we had to go down to 11 forwards."

Here's how the lineups could look when the Calgary Flames take on the St. Louis Blues tonight at the Scotiabank Saddledome:

FLAMES
Alex Tanguay – Brendan Morrison – Jarome Iginla
Curtis Glencross – Olli Jokinen – David Moss
Lee Stempniak – Roman Horak – Rene Bourque
Tom Kostopoulos – Tim Jackman

Chris Butler – Jay Bouwmeester
Mark Giordano – Scott Hannan
Derek Smith – Cory Sarich
Anton Babchuk

Miikka Kiprusoff is expected to get the start in goal with Henrik Karlsson serving as his backup.

BLUES
Vladimir Sobotka – David Backes – Chris Stewart
T.J. Oshie – Patrik Berglund – Matt D'Agostini
Alex Steen – Jason Arnott – Jamie Langenbrunner
Evgeny Grachev – Scott Nichol – Chris Porter

Kent Huskins – Alex Pietrangelo
Barrett Jackman – Kevin Shattenkirk
Carlo Colaiacovo – Roman Polak

Brian Elliott is expected to get the start in goal with Jaroslav Halak serving as his backup.

DETROIT -- Detroit defenseman Mike Commodore (knee sprain) has been medically cleared to return to the ice in game action, according to Red Wings coach Mike Babcock.

Now what the 31-year old veteran needs is an opportunity to crack the defensive-pairing rotation. Since he was hurt toward the end of the preseason, Commodore has seen 24-year-old Jakub Kindl play well in his absence as the team's sixth defenseman, paired with 27-year-old Jonathan Ericsson.

Kindl had a slip-up at Washington last weekend, finishing with a minus-3 in a 7-1 loss to the Capitals, but overall has been solid. Commodore, meanwhile, knows he needs to remain patient.

"I've had a couple of good practices lately, which is good because it's been awhile," he said following Detroit's Friday morning skate. "I just want to have good practices and then when the opportunity arises, be ready to go. If it takes a while for that opportunity, then so be it. That's fine."

Commodore is wearing a knee brace for the first time in his career, but said he doesn't mind it.

"I'll be playing with a brace for the rest of the season, if not the rest of my career," he said. "It's fine. I'm used to it now."

His knee is also feeling more stable now than it's been since his return to practicing.

"Every once in a while, if I get extended on that leg … if my weight gets extended out it can be a bit of a pain, but it's a lot better," he said. "It's gotten a lot better in the last week."