NHL Picks: Pavel Datsyuk's season debut will lift Red Wings over Sharks – CBSSports.com

Welcome to the NHL’s Daily Picks where hockey writers Adam Gretz and Chris Peters make their selections for all of the day’s games.

San Jose Sharks vs. Detroit Red Wings, 7:30 p.m. ET

The Detroit Red Wings have not looked like the Red Wings team we have grown accustomed to seeing in recent years. Entering their home game against the San Jose Sharks on Friday night they’ve been outscored on the season (36-34) and are one of the worst possession teams in the NHL, currently attempting just 46 percent of the 5-on-5 shot attempts in their games this season which is the fourth worst mark in the entire NHL. Over the previous eight years, they were first in that category.

Part of it is a roster that has been rebuilt on the fly with a lot of new faces coming in over the years, especially on defense.

Part of it has to be going from Mike Babcock behind the bench to rookie NHL coach Jeff Blashill (Toronto, Babcock’s new team, is currently 11th in the NHL in Corsi percentage after being one of the NHL’s worst teams the past few years under Randy Carlyle).

Another factor: Not having Pavel Datsyuk, still their best player, at all this season.

That changes on Friday night against the Sharks when Datsyuk is expected to make his 2015-16 season debut after missing the first 15 games of the regular season as he recovered from offseason surgery to repair a ruptured tendon in his ankle.

He is expected to play on a line alongside Henrik Zetterberg and the freshly re-signed Justin Abdelkader.

Even though he’s 37 years old and already played his best hockey in the NHL, Datsyuk is still a force at both ends of the ice. He’s coming off a 2014-15 season where he was a better than point-per-game player in the league (one of just eight among players that appeared in at least 60 games), was the NHL’s top Corsi player at 59.7 percent (minimum 750 minutes played) and finished in the top-five in Selke Trophy voting for the seventh time in his career.

For his season debut he gets to go up against a Sharks team that has hit a wall after winning the first four games of the season. San Jose enters the game with just three wins in its past 11 games while giving up 38 goals over that stretch. Things won’t get any better on Friday. Pick: Red Wings 3, Sharks 2

The rest of Friday’s picks

Pittsburgh Penguins 4, Columbus Blue Jackets 2

Washington Capitals 3, Calgary Flames 1

New York Islanders 3, Anaheim Ducks 2

Pavel Datsyuk will make his 2015-16 season debut for the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night. (USATSI)

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