DRW injury roundup
As you likely know, the Detroit Red Wings have had some injury trouble of late and I’m here to make sure you know who’s hurt, with what, when they expect to be back, and how the Wings are filling those extra roster spots.
Nicklas Lidstrom
On Monday in the Wings game against Colorado, Ian Laperriere checked Nicklas Lidstrom into the boards. Lidstrom fell to the ice and awkwardly got up. While trying to skate to the bench, he looked like a little calf trying to walk for his first time. They immediately tested him for a concussion, and he passed. They then examined his knee and determined he should not return to the game. We finally got the results back from the MRI today and fortunately there is no tear in Lidstrom’s MCL, which is great news. Since he did sprain his MCL, he will be out for three weeks and is resting his knee this week by limiting himself to upper body workouts.
“Very relieved it wasn’t a tear or anything more major than what it is now,” Lidstrom said. “At least that’s good.”
Lidstrom said he’ll probably have the second test to determine if he suffered a concussion next week.
Lidstrom is the only DRW player who will not make it on the three game road trip to Calgary, Vancouver, and Edmonton.
Brian Rafalski
Detroit’s number two defenseman is out with a sore groin and has missed the last three games. Rafalski skated Wednesday, but isn’t ready to see any playing time just yet. The Wings do not know when he will return. To make room for some of the Grand Rapids call-ups, Rafalski was placed on injured reserve.
“I haven’t gotten to top speed yet. It’s better than yesterday. I went 20 minutes yesterday and 40 minutes today.”
Niklas Kronwall
Detroit’s number three defenseman and BTJ favorite hopes to return to play this weekend in the game against Vancouver after suffering a sprained clavicle injury back on January 30th. Initially, he was expected to return within ten days, but has now missed ten games.
“It feels good; The last couple of days have been really good,” said Kronwall. “Obviously, I hope for Friday, but they might have a different agenda. Like I said before, we don’t want to take any chances.”
A day after Kronner gave that quote to Bruce MacLeod, he told Ansar Khan that he will not play in Friday’s game, but possibly Saturday’s game against Vancouver.
Dominik Hasek
Detroit’s starting goaltender is out with inflammation of his hip-flexor and has been since February 11th. What was supposed to be a minor setback and precautionary time out has turned into a longer recovery than originally anticipated. Head coach Mike Babcock hopes that Hasek will start skating soon, possibly even while he’s with the team on their western Canada road trip. The Wings do not have a time frame for when he might be ready to play in a game.
Dan Cleary
The gritty forward suffered a fractured jaw in multiple spots after a puck shot by teammate Mikael Samuelsson hit him during the game against Toronto on February 9th. He opted for surgery and a shorter recovery time. The surgery required three metal plates and 12-15 screws. Cleary will miss 6-8 weeks of action so he should return right before the start of playoffs.
The Roster Fillers
Jimmy Howard was called up after Hasek’s injury appeared. Twice, starter Chris Osgood allowed three goals in the first period and in both games, Howard had to step in afterwards to try and give the team a boost. He then started the game against Dallas and allowed just one goal. He will actually start Saturday’s game against the Canucks since Chris Osgood is starting on Friday.
Kyle Quincey was called up last Friday after Rafalski hurt his groin. Derek Meech, who has been a healthy scratch for a fair amount of games this season, really stepped up when Nicklas Lidstrom went down on Monday. He finished the game with a +2 after notching a goal and an assist.
On Friday, we will get to see the NHL debut of defensive prospect Jonathan Ericsson, who is so big that the team had to take some time to find a jersey that would actually fit him.
“I’ve had a lot of help along the way,” Ericsson said. “You have to have some luck your way, too.”
Ericsson has seven goals and 18 assists, with a plus-4 rating, in 54 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins this season.
“I was very pumped,” Ericsson said about how he felt when he heard of his promotion to the Wings. “I’ll be a little bit nervous (Friday), but that’ll be a positive for me.”
Babcock is looking forward to seeing how Chris Chelios handles the young players and how Ericsson performs in the big league.
“It’s a great opportunity for us, as an organization, to see all these young ‘D’,” Babcock said. “We are calling up Ericsson as of now. It’ll be a good opportunity for Cheli to drive the bus and the rest of them to figure it out.”
Forward Mark Hartigan was also called up now that Matt Ellis was picked off of waivers by LA.
Related Posts
One Response to “DRW injury roundup”
Leave a Reply
February 21st, 2008 at 6:37 pm
[…] Canada road trip @ Winging It In Motown and the other BTJ posts that I have published this week: Detroit Red Wings roundup Kings pick Ellis off of waivers Harmless speculation about a rumor Wings to offer McCarty a […]