Vancouver Canucks (10-9-0) at Detroit Red Wings (8-5-3), 7:30 p.m.

Sports Network | November 12, 2009

(Sports Network) - Coming off their most lopsided victory of the season, the Detroit Red Wings begin a four-game homestand tonight versus the Vancouver Canucks at Joe Louis Arena.

The Red Wings improved to 5-1-1 over their last seven games with Wednesday night's 9-1 victory at Columbus in a rematch of last season's first-round playoff matchup. Detroit got goals from seven different skaters, with Niklas Kronwall leading the way with a pair of power-play goals and an assist.

Justin Abdelkader also scored twice, while Dan Cleary, Pavel Datsyuk and Todd Bertuzzi had a goal and an assist each. Kris Draper and Ville Leino added a tally as well for Detroit.

Jimmy Howard recorded 25 saves in the victory, which followed a 5-1 loss to Toronto on Saturday that ended the Red Wings' three-game win streak.

"We got out to a good start. I obviously wasn't very happy with our last game and I let the guys know that," Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock remarked. "We played with good structure tonight. We got a lot of pucks to the net, which is important, and things turned out well for us tonight."

Detroit, 5-1-1 at home this season, bested the Canucks in Vancouver earlier in the year for its sixth win in the last nine meetings between the two clubs. The Red Wings have won three of four and six of their last 10 at home versus the Canucks.

Vancouver comes to town off a slanted loss. The club was in St. Louis on Tuesday and dropped a 6-1 decision to the Blues, getting its lone goal from Henrik Sedin.

"[The Blues] took it to us very hard in the first period," said Canucks coach Alain Vigneault. "They had some quality chances and they buried them -- we didn't have any push-back."

Andrew Raycroft started in goal for Vancouver and allowed four goals on 13 shots in the first period. He was replaced by Roberto Luongo, who made 15 saves in his first action since October 28, having been out with a hairline rib fracture.

Tonight could mark Luongo's first start since aggravating his injury in that 5-4 loss to the Red Wings on October 27.

Vancouver fell to 1-2-0 on a five-game road trip that ends in Colorado on Saturday, and is 3-7-0 overall as the guest. The Canucks also lost consecutive games for the first time since opening the season with three losses in a row.

There was some thought that the Canucks' Daniel Sedin would be able to return tonight from a broken foot that has sidelined him for the last 15 games, but that now doesn't appear be the case. Jannik Hansen, though, could make his season debut after suffering a broken right hand in a preseason fight.