Penguins vs Red Wings live stream: Watch online free 7:30 ET Thursday in what is a must-win game for Detroit at home, but faces one of the two best teams in the Eastern Conference.

It might not necessarily be a must-win game for the Detroit Red Wings (31-24-13), but if the Blue Jackets win and they lose vs the Penguins on Thursday, they will fall three points out of the final wild card spot. Both teams are coming off wins, but watch the free live stream online to see which team can make it two straight.

Watch the free live stream online of the Penguins vs Red Wings:

1) First Row Sports.

2) NHL Gamecenter

3) NHL AOSO

Detroit is one point behind Columbus for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference while the Blue Jackets will face the Montreal Canadiens, who are up eight points in the standings over Detroit.

"I think every game for us here on out is huge," defenseman Danny DeKeyser told the team's official website. "We need to get two points in pretty much every game that we can."

The injury-bug that has hit the Wings all season continued when it was announced that Detroit defenseman Jonathan Ericsson underwent surgery Wednesday to have pins inserted in his broken left middle finger. He will be out 4-6 weeks. Red Wings coach Mike Babcock told NHL.com that he will pair Brendan Smith with Niklas Kronwall.

"He's just got to compete hard and make good decisions with the puck," Babcock told the Macomb Daily. "Smitty's got the competitive nature you need, he's got the skating you need, the skill you need. His decision making with the puck gets him in trouble at times and his decision making being active, so those are things you grow with, you become a better player. Do more by doing less, make the simple play, don't force things, lots of shifts are 50-50, nothing happens."

This will be the second of three meetings this season. Pittsburgh won the first one 4-1 and rebounded well from dropping a home-and-home series to the Philadelphia Flyers this past weekend.

''We weren't happy with those losses, we have to do better,'' Crosby said. ''We wanted to make sure we went out there and played hard. It's a desperate team we're playing and hopefully we can build that same emotion, same intensity we had [Tuesday] and carry it over to the rest of the season.''