Detroit Red Wings Quick Hits: Jonathan Ericsson Back, Todd Bertuzzi Good To Go

Brian Rafalski and Jerome Iginla will renew acquaintances tonight as the two Olympic standouts and their teams will engage in what could prove to be a very critical battle for playoff positioning.

If the Flames win, they will exchange their ninth seed position with Detroit and gain the one point cushion the Red Wings currently have on them .

If the Wings win, they will have a much more comfortable three point barrier between them and the Flames.  Additionally, if Nashville loses to Atlanta tonight, the Red Wings could leave Joe Louis Arena as a seventh seed team.

Clearly, this game is huge.

Ericsson Returns

After turning into an absolute blue-line stud through last year's playoffs, 26-year-old Jonathan Ericsson has struggled mightily in this, his first full regular NHL season.

The 6'4" rearguard owns a team-worst minus-17 rating and has only 11 points in 48 games played.

Ericsson certainly has the skills and potential to be every bit the top four defenseman he was supposed to be this year.  But, he needs to adjust to the rigors of an 82 game season and the physical and mental toll it takes on players to realize that potential.

Ericsson has been replaced by Brett Lebda the past two games who was even in plus/minus and talied no points.

Ericsson must at least match that performance in order to earn a second straight spot on the roster, as at this point, simply doing nothing to hurt the team, let alone help it, would be an improvement over his play of late.

Bertuzzi and Datsyuk Will Play Tonight

Todd Bertuzzi suffered a charley horse during Sunday's game against the Blackhawks which made him questionable for tonight's game.

However, head coach Mike Babcock said the injury will not keep Bertuzzi from playing his former club tonight.

Bertuzzi, along with defensemen Nicklas Lidstrom and Brad Stuart, is the only Red Wing that has not missed a single game this season.

Additionally, though Pavel Datsyuk missed Monday's practice due to illness, he too will be in the lineup tonight.

This is very welcome news considering his play of late.

Datsyuk has eight points over the past five games and Wings have gone 4-1 over that stretch.

With so much on the line, the Red Wings can ill afford to have a hot Pavel Datsyuk out of the line up.

Did You Know?

If the Red Wings win tonight, it will be only the fourth time this year that they've won three in a row and the first time they'd have done this in three months?

If they continue their streak on Thursday against Minnesota, it will be their longest winning streak of the season, at four games.