Game Seven in San Jose

Amazingly, this is the second series in these 2011 playoffs that we have seen a team come back from being down 3-0 in their series to force a Game Seven. The first being the Canucks and Blackhawks, with the home team, who led 3-0, pulling out all the stops in the final game of the series and moving on. This is the same boat the Sharks are in, as they were the seeded favourites with home-ice advantage, but now sit on the brink of elimination.

With these two teams not separated by too much, skill and regular season standings, there could be a much better argument for how much momentum will play a factor in Game Seven.

The Red Wings carried a lot of momentum into Game Six on Tuesday night and shot the lights out of the Sharks, putting over 40 shots on Antti Niemi, while keeping their goaltender relatively untested.

Much like the Canucks in the first round, the Sharks have a lot of firepower that has all of a sudden disappeared and would be wise to ramp their play back up and make a game of this one.  With plenty of playoff critics closely watching players like Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau, now would be the best time to show what kind of pedigree no one wants to say they have.

An injury update on Johan Franzen... his ankle will be evaluated before tonight's game, but an ankle injury is tough to play on, with a skate on or not.  Consider Franzen to be questionable for the game.  I'm sort of leaning towards doubtful, but it is the playoffs and medical miracles have happened before.

The word on Ryane Clowe is that he is going to be a game-time decision with an upper-body injury.  This sounds a little more promising for his sake, as he did stay home when the team went to Detroit for Game Six, so there wasn't much resting time wasted with travel.  The Sharks will need his offense, if he has any drive to the net, tonight.

With my outdoor schedule ramping up, it's been a little harder to catch these games on the television and tonight will be no exception.

I'm going to wager a guess for tonight's game and looking back at most of the numbers and the highlights, it's hard not to pick the Red Wings to make it through this series.  They have put together some pretty solid efforts and the Sharks have not shown me much in the way of being a confident team, despite what they've said in the media.  I like Detroit in regulation time in this one.