SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The Detroit Red Wings visit HP Pavilion on Thursday night, but they won't be returning as often in future seasons under an NHL realignment plan that could be in place next season.

That definitely would cut into the rivalry that has developed between San Jose and its most frequent playoff foe, but it's not as if Shark fans would be getting fewer chances to see the very best of the West.

Because, somewhat like the Sharks, Detroit has slipped back into the pack.

Still, see if this sounds familiar:

Last season, the Red Wings did not win their division, did not have home-ice advantage in the playoffs and were eliminated in five games. This year, the team has struggled at times, looked strong at others and currently sits on the playoff precipice -- maybe in, maybe not.

Realignment would move Detroit into the Eastern Conference -- players and owners still must sign off before it goes into effect -- and that would mean just one trip to San Jose each season instead of the customary two. The Columbus Blue Jackets also would move to the Eastern Conference.

As for the playoff rivalry that has existed between the Sharks and Red Wings -- they have played five series, with the Sharks winning three -- it remains to be seen what kind of postseason format will come out of realignment.

But that is down the road. The immediate question is whether the Sharks can string together two victories for the first time in four weeks. The Sharks shootout victory over Colorado on Tuesday night was just their second win in 11 games.

Detroit had gone five games without a victory until beating Nashville and Vancouver last weekend by a combined 12-3 margin. Which is why the Sharks weren't ready to concede they'll be facing a significantly diminished Detroit team.

"They're still a good team. They've got a lot of skill," Logan Couture said.

The biggest obstacle Detroit has had to overcome this season is the retirement of captain Niklas Lidstrom.

"I think they'll be the first ones to tell you he was a huge part of their team," said Sharks defenseman Douglas Murray, a teammate of Lidstrom's on Team Sweden in the 2010 Olympics.

Detroit's problems on the backline were compounded by Brad Stuart's decision to leave the Red Wings for San Jose. And the offense took a hit with the retirement of Tomas Holmstrom, who had planted himself in front of Sharks' goalies for more than a decade.

Still, any team with the high-end offensive talent of Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg is going to be a handful.

"Yeah, I've seen them a lot in practice and I know how tough they can be to play against," Stuart said. "Obviously it's a little different when you're wearing a different jersey, but it's a challenge to play against guys like that."

Even with Datsyuk and Zetterberg, Detroit's leading goal scorer is a 26-year-old NHL rookie from Switzerland, Damien Brunner, whom the Red Wings signed last summer. Couture faced Brunner overseas during the lockout and came away impressed.

The Sharks have had success against Detroit since hiring Todd McLellan, a Red Wings assistant at the time, as head coach in June 2008. San Jose has a 9-6-1 regular season record against Detroit and has won both playoff series.

But McLellan isn't about to buy into the notion that the current Red Wings are anything but an elite NHL team, even without Lidstrom.

"He won the Norris trophy I don't know how many times and when you take that out of somebody's lineup, it's going to affect you no matter who you are," McLellan said. "But looking at their play in the last little bit, they seem to have moved on and adjusted well."

And while Holmstrom may be gone, Johan Franzen and Dan Cleary make pretty good replacements in that same role.

"Homer was the best, but those other two do a pretty good job as well," McLellan said. "They've watched Holmstrom play for a long time and they're emulating what he did."

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