At the Rink: Sharks at Red Wings

DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings (39-21-12) will get defenseman Niklas Kronwall back when they play the San Jose Sharks (35-30-8) Thursday at Joe Louis Arena (7:30 p.m. ET; CSN-CA, FS-D), but they'll remain without forwards Pavel Datsyuk and Erik Cole.

Kronwall was a last-minute scratch prior to a 5-4 overtime loss against the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday because of a lower-body injury.

Datsyuk will miss his fifth game because of a lower-body injury, and Cole left Tuesday after the first period because of an upper-body injury.

Datsyuk has skated with the Red Wings a few times this week, including Thursday morning.

"Hard to say when [he'll play], but not today for sure," he said. "We shoot for today, it doesn't work well. Now we shoot for next game."

That is Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Joe Louis Arena (2 p.m. ET; SUN, FS-D).

Datsyuk said he's feeling better every day.

"I'm having more confidence and more power," he said.

Detroit is 1-2-1 in four games without Datsyuk.

"You watch games, you want to come back next day, but it's something that can't happen," Datsyuk said. "It's a tough time to watch, for any player to watch the game when you want to play."

Stephen Weiss, who has been a healthy scratch the past five games and seven of the past eight, will replace Cole in the lineup.

San Jose finds itself in the unaccustomed position of being virtually out of contention for a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"Obviously we'd like to be in a better position than we are now," Sharks forward Joe Pavelski said. "... But you've got to play your game, play hard and have fun."

Even though the Sharks' playoff hopes are bleak, coach Todd McLellan said every win is important.

"Points are what gives you a sense of pride," said McLellan, who is a former Red Wings assistant coach.

He said his team particularly needs to cut down the amount of odd-man rushes it has been allowing recently.

"The rush killed us against Ottawa [a 5-2 loss Monday]. We're trying to correct it by working on positioning and by watching video," McLellan said. " … [Detroit] can hurt you off the rush and in transition. … Guys need to read and react. … There's a time in the game you need to gamble. The first three shifts of a game isn't that time."

Antii Niemi will be in goal for the Sharks.

"Niemi has played well in this building," McLellan said. "We need a win tonight and he's the goalie who's starting."

San Jose signed University of Wisconsin goaltender Joel Rumpel to a one-year, entry-level contract and assigned him to Worcester of the American Hockey League. Rumpel recently completed his senior season at Wisconsin.

Here are the projected lineups:

SHARKS

Joe Pavelski - Joe Thornton - Melker Karlsson

Matthew Nieto - Logan Couture - Tommy Wingels

Patrick Marleau - Chris Tierney - Tomas Hertl

Danill Tarasov - Ben Smith - Barclay Goodrow

Marc-Edouard Vlasic - Justin Braun

Scott Hannan - Brent Burns

Brenden Dillon - Mirco Mueller

Antti Niemi

Alex Stalock

Scratched: John Scott, Matt Irwin

Injured: Raffi Torres (knee surgery), Mike Brown (leg)

RED WINGS

Justin Abdelkader - Henrik Zetterberg - Gustav Nyquist

Darren Helm - Riley Sheahan - Tomas Tatar

Drew Miller - Luke Glendening - Tomas Jurco

Stephen Weiss - Joakim Andersson - Teemu Pulkkinen

Niklas Kronwall - Jonathan Ericsson

Danny DeKeyser - Kyle Quincey

Brendan Smith - Marek Zidlicky

Jimmy Howard

Petr Mrazek

Scratched: Daniel Cleary, Jakub Kindl

Injured: Pavel Datsyuk (lower body), Erik Cole (upper body), Jonas Gustavsson (head), Johan Franzen (concussion)

Status report: With the injury to Cole, combined with Datsyuk's continued absence, the Glendening line likely will see more ice time.

Who's hot: Abdelkader has eight goals and three assists in his past 12 games.