DETROIT -- Detroit will start journeyman backup Joey MacDonald for a seventh straight time, while starting goalie Jimmy Howard takes the added time to continue healing up a broken finger that's kept him out since injuring it Feb. 2 at Vancouver.
Red Wings star center Pavel Datsyuk is expected to play against the Shark after having a slight sore throat on Saturday and not practicing outdoors with the rest of the team at Clark Park on the city's West side in front of an estimated 2,000 fans.
Detroit will also be without forward Danny Cleary at least one more game with knee soreness, as he hopes to return to the lineup on Tuesday in Chicago. San Jose will be without defenseman Douglas Murray, who's been diagnosed with a broken Adam's Apple after a puck hit him in the throat last week in Tampa Bay.
Here is how the Sharks and Red Wings might line up to start Sunday's game.
SHARKS
Patrick Marleau - Joe Thornton - Joe Pavelski
Ryane Clowe - Logan Couture - Tommy Wingels
Jamie McGinn - Dominic Moore - Torrey Mitchell
Andrew Desjardins - Michal Handzus - Benn Ferriero
Marc-Edouard Vlasic - Dan Boyle
Colin White - Brent Burns
Jim Vandermeer - Justin Braun
Antti Niemi
Thomas Greiss
RED WINGS
Henrik Zetterberg - Pavel Datsyuk - Jiri Hudler
Johan Franzen - Valtteri Filppula - Todd Bertuzzi
Drew Miller - Darren Helm - Justin Abdelkader
Jan Mursak - Cory Emmerton - Tomas Holmstrom
Nicklas Lidstrom - Ian White
Niklas Kronwall - Brad Stuart
Jonathan Ericsson - Mike Commodore
Joey MacDonald
Ty Conklin
Note: The top two lines looked this way for most of the third period in Friday's 2-1 victory against the Nashville Predators at Joe Louis Arena. Datsyuk didn't skate with the rest of the team at Saturday's practice, so the forward lines weren't what they'll be to start out against the Sharks on Sunday. If Babcock goes back to the line combinations he's used most of the season, he will split up Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg and put the Swedish star forward at center of the second line while bumping up power forward Johan Franzen to the top line -- and likely flip-flopping Bertuzzi and Hudler at right wing on the top two units.
Projected lineups for Sharks-Red Wings
Sunday, 02.19.2012 / 10:48 AM
By Brian Hedger - NHL.com Correspondent / At the Rink blog
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