Pavel-Datsyuk-12-21-13

The Red Wings' Pavel Datsyuk will miss his second game in a row Thursday at San Jose.

(The Associated Press)

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Pavel Datsyuk will miss his second game in a row Thursday when the Detroit Red Wings return from a four-day break to play the San Jose Sharks at the SAP Center (10:30 p.m., Fox Sports Detroit).

Datsyuk (lower-body injury) has skated the past two days but coach Mike Babcock said, “It doesn’t look like Pavel’s going anytime soon.”

Earlier, Datsyuk said he would be a game-time decision. He said he felt a little better but "not enough."

Babcock said center Darren Helm (groin) will be a game-time decision. Defenseman Danny DeKeyser (groin) will return to the lineup; Babcock would not reveal who he will replace.

Johan Franzen (concussion) joined the team for practice but didn’t take part in most of the drills and Babcock said it doesn’t look like he’ll return anytime soon.

“With all the injuries we have it didn’t hurt us to have a break,” Babcock said. “Now we got to get right back at it and continue to try to get traction.

“Obviously, we’re hoping to get people back but we had lots of good players last game (5-1 win at Dallas Saturday), in particular our goaltender (Jimmy Howard) was outstanding and allowed us to settle in and play. We’re going to need him tomorrow; the first 10 minutes is always survival in this building.”

The Red Wings (19-14-10, 48 points) are tied for fifth in points in the Eastern Conference; they in the first wild-card position.

“All you got to do is look at the standings; we have no separation,” Babcock said. “We have more separation from the teams ahead of us than the teams behind us.”

Here are the lines they skated with Wednesday:

Gustav Nyquist-Henrik Zetterberg-Daniel Alfredsson

Justin Abdelkader-Darren Helm-Todd Bertuzzi

Drew Miller-Joakim Andersson-Tomas Tatar

Daniel Cleary-Luke Glendening-Patrick Eaves

Pavel Datsyuk, Mikael Samuelsson and Johan Franzen also skated.

On defense:

Niklas Kronwall-Brendan Smith

Kyle Quincey-Danny DeKeyser

Brian Lashoff-Jakub Kindl

Alexey Marchenko

Jimmy Howard (starting Thursday)

Petr Mrazek

Defenseman Jonathan Ericsson (broken ribs) and goalie Jonas Gustavsson (groin) skated after practice.