Tomas Jurco producing for Red Wings

Red Wings forward Tomas Jurco needs to provide speed and a physical presence in addition to some offense.

(AP file photo)

TAMPA, Fla. - Tomas Jurco returns to the lineup tonight for the Detroit Red Wings, anxious to snap his goal-scoring drought but also determined to keep improving in other facets of his game.

Jurco will be skating on a line with Joakim Andersson and Drew Miller when the Red Wings, winners of six in a row, face the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena (7:30, Fox Sports Detroit).

"First couple of games I'm just going to try to get back into it, play hard," Jurco said. "I'm going to try to play physical. Just help out and put a little offense in."

Jurco missed eight games with lower back pain.

Coach Mike Babcock said he just wants Jurco to "get going."

"He's a big guy, can really skate," Babcock said. "This game should be going 100 miles an hour. He's a guy who has to become a heavy forechecking puck-possession guy who plays great defensively but is one of the workers with top-six forwards, if that makes sense."

Jurco has gone 18 games without a goal, since scoring on Nov. 26 against Philadelphia. He has five assists during that stretch.

"I always want to score. It just didn't go in for me," Jurco said. "It doesn't mean I didn't play good. It just didn't go in."

Overall, Jurco has two goals and 12 points in 37 games. He had eight goals and 15 points in 36 games last season as a rookie.

"I think I was getting better at other things, what Babs wants from me," Jurco said. "I've been focusing on that. Now I've got to do both of them, scoring and doing what he wants. It's going to take me sometime, but hopefully after I come back it's going to get better."

Babcock said Jurco is replacing Daniel Cleary in the lineup and that's the only change from the previous game.

Here are the lines the Red Wings will use to start the game:

Gustav Nyquist-Henrik Zetterberg-Justin Abdelkader

Tomas Tatar-Pavel Datsyuk-Darren Helm

Luke Glendening-Riley Sheahan-Stephen Weiss

Drew Miller-Joakim Andersson-Tomas Jurco

On defense:

Jonathan Ericsson-Niklas Kronwall

Kyle Quincey-Danny DeKeyser

Brendan Smith-Xavier Ouellet

Petr Mrazek (starting)

Tom McCollum

The power-play units are: Nyquist-Zetterberg-Weiss, Abdelkader (net front), Kronwall, and Tatar-Datsyuk-Sheahan, Jurco (net front), DeKeyser. Helm rotated in with Jurco.

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