The Walking Wounded: Canucks & Red Wings

> Line Experiments Continue: No reason to debate any further the loss of Malhotra to Vancouver’s spring plans. It’s a biggie. Tonight – against the strongest opponent Vancouver has left on the regular season docket – they’ll have no choice but to juggle Manny’s injury along with a slew of others littered across the bottom nine: Higgins will take the place of Samuelsson on Kesler’s line, Lapierre steps in for Malhota as the third line pivot and Bolduc takes Glass’ place as the fourth line center with Tambellini and recent-recall Oreskovich. Two bright spots: Daniel made the trip out to try and protect his point lead and Bieksa returns to the blueline, pushing Tanev back to the press box. Suffice it to say, there could be some chemistry issues tonight.

> We’ll Split The Cab Fare To The Hospital: The Wings have their own injuries to deal with. Up front Detroit will be resting four of their top ten scorers in Franzen, Datsyuk, Hudler and Bertuzzi. In net Osgood isn’t ready so emergency call-up Troy Passingham Joey MacDonald will backup Jimmy Howard. So it’s a far cry from games earlier this season between the two heavyweights, a series that Detroit leads 2-1, winning the last two match-ups.

> Impress Your Friends With Knowledge!: The Wings were the last team to score more than four goals against the Cancks, a 5-4 OT loss back in December (h/t Jeff Paterson).