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Tomas Holmstrom did not play for the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final. He has a hamstring injury but hoped to be able to play.

However, by game time, Holmstrom was still not comfortable enough to play and he was replaced on the roster by forward Darren McCarty. Danny Cleary got Holmstrom's spot at right wing on the top line with centre Henrik Zetterberg and left winger Pavel Datsyuk.

Holmstrom was the last player out of the Detroit Red Wings' dressing room on  Saturday afternoon. The rest of his teammates had gone back to their hotel for a pre-game meal and then a nap in preparation for Saturday's fourth game of the Stanley Cup final against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Holmstrom stayed behind for treatment on his injured hamstring, which looked as if it might keep him out of the game. However, Holmstrom struck an optimistic tone. Officially, the team listed him as a game-time decision — in a three-minute interview, Holmstrom used the term "game-time decision" six times. However, his body language suggested that unless there was a setback in the pre-game skate, or the team doctors step in and prevent him from playing, he would be in the Red Wings' line-up.

"It felt pretty good actually," said Holmstrom. "Maybe they can wrap it a little different, stuff like that. But it looks good."

The two days between games — Pittsburgh won Wednesday night to cut Detroit's lead to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series — helped Holmstrom's recovery. He was injured when Penguins' defenceman Hal Gill threw him into the net in the third period.

"When I got hurt, I couldn't go out there, I couldn't skate really, so it's been a big improvement. That's why we'll see for game time how it is. This was just the morning skated. You don't do that much. There's no body contact out there, it's a totally different thing than when you're doing one-on-one battles."

Holmstrom indicated he didn't want to watch the game from the sidelines.

"It's terrible," he said, of the timing of his injury. "This is the best time of year. You want to be out there."

With or without Holmstrom, the Red Wings' goal tonight is to demystify the Mellon Arena, where Pittsburgh is 9-0 at home in the playoffs; 17-0 at home overall; and where goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury — mostly because he missed two months in the middle part of the season recovering from a high ankle sprain — hasn't lost at the Igloo since November. November — think about that. John Ferguson Jr. was still GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs; Mats Sundin was happy as their captain; and they were even entertaining some vague thoughts about actually qualifying for the playoffs. November was a long time ago.

The Red Wings understand — if they can end the Penguins' monster home-ice winning streak and get up 3-1 in the series, then the Stanley Cup is as good as theirs. They won't put it quite that equivocally, but they all understand the stats and the history — if they can improve upon their 5-4 road record with a win tonight, they'll have the Penguins squarely on the ropes.

"This whole playoff run, the thing we take a lot of pride in is being able to close series out on the road," said centre Kris Draper. "That's what we've done in all three playoffs series so far. It's important, at this time of year, to win on the road, if you're going to be successful.

"But to answer the question, of why home-ice has been so important, it's tough to understand. As an athlete, that crowd in Game 3, that made it fun. That's what you want. You want the fans in it; you want them yelling at you. At the Joe, in Games 1 and 2, they were great for us.

"I really think you can come into a building and play well. I thought we were solid in Game 3, not great, and we know we can play better. If we do that, we feel we can win on the road. We have confidence that we can come into a building, in a key situation, and win."

Fleury now leads the NHL in post-season victories with 13, one more than the Red Wings' Chris Osgood at 12 (Dominik Hasek won the other two games for Detroit this spring). Up until the first two games of the series, he'd been spectacular in the playoffs, giving up just 24 goals in 14 games. Then the Red Wings produced seven against him in winning the first two at home to start the Stanley Cup final. It was also the first time the Penguins lost back-to-back games in the playoffs.

Coach Michel Therrien thought it was inexperience, rather than flagging confidence, that hurt Fleury in the first two games.

"He was nervous like the rest of our players," said Therrien. "For players who are 19, 20, 21, 22 years old, to play in the Stanley Cup final, it's pretty big. The one thing I can see from our team is we're getting better every game. Every game, I'm expecting we're going to be better. That's a good sign for a young team."

During Fleury's absence, the Penguins received strong work in goal from Ty Conklin, the ex-Edmonton Oilers' goaltender. Therrien indicated Friday that Fleury was by no means guaranteed his starting job back after recovering from his injury. In fact, he went down to the team's minor-league affiliate in Wilkes-Barre to get a rehab start before rejoining the team.

According to Therrien, he told both players that performance would dictate who played and who didn't.

"The players were playing with a lot of confidence with Conklin in the net," he said. "You can't change that. You can't say to a guy like that, 'OK, thank you very much, what you did for us, but the No. 1 guy is going to come in. That's not the way it works. I had the conversation with Conklin when Fleury was ready to play and I said: Keep playing like this, it's up to you. I go with performance. I said the same to Fleury. That was fair for both of them.

"At the end of the day, Ty slipped a bit and Marc-Andre really picked it up."

Overall, Fleury is 13-4 in the playoffs, with a 1.93 GAA; Osgood 12-3, with a 1.48 GAA. Their save percentages are virtually identical — Fleury at .933; Osgood at .935. Fleury's regular-season save percentage of .932 was fifth-best in the NHL.

If Holmstrom can't play, the Red Wings have a couple of options with their first line — either move Daniel Cleary into Holmstrom's spot, or put Johan Franzen there. Both have had chances to play on the Henrik Zetterberg line earlier this season; Cleary would be happy to get a chance there again.

"Honestly, it's very easy to play with them," said Cleary. "It's a privilege to be on their line. You've got to work hard for them, that's all."