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Zetterberg Still Driving The Bus |
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It’s been nearly 16 years since they first came to Detroit together, two young Swedish prospects invited to Joe Louis Arena by the Red Wings to see them face the Colorado Avalanche in the 2002 Stanley Cup Western Conference final.
“After watching for a while, we took a look at each other, and both of us thought, ‘We can never survive in this league,’” Niklas Kronwall remembered of that night spent sitting next to Henrik Zetterberg as the NHL’s most hated rivalry played out on the ice below.
Survive? How about thrive? As the 2017-18 NHL season winds down, defenseman Kronwall and left-winger Zetterberg, the team captain, continue to wear the winged wheel on their chest. Both have slowed down significantly from their halcyon days due to a combination of injury and Father Time, but Saturday, as the Wings downed the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1 at Little Caesars Arena, Zetterberg scored his 335th goal, moving him into a tie with Ted Lindsay for fifth in Red Wings history.
“Obviously it’s a number that I’ve been looking at for a while, and it’s special to have with him,” Zetterberg told Mlive.com of Lindsay. “I think he’s been here for all of my career and before that, he meant a lot for a lot of players, not just for this team, but what he did with the (NHL)PA and starting all that.
“We wouldn’t be in this spot where we are now if it wasn’t for him.”
You wonder where the Wings would be, even today, without Zetterberg.
As bleak as things have been the past two seasons in Detroit, Zetterberg has proven to be one of the team’s few constants. No, he doesn’t score with the pace of past seasons - Saturday’s goal was Zetterberg’s ninth of the season - but he still shows the way for this team, teaches the youngsters how to get it done, and never takes a night off.
“You look at the production pointwise, you look at scoring chances for and against, Hank gives up such a little amount of scoring chances, so his differentiation is always excellent,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “He’s probably been our most consistent and best forward over the last month and a half. His brain, his strength on the puck, his competitiveness comes through on a nightly basis. It just shows what a special that he still is and what he’s been throughout his career.
“His competitive fire is unreal. He’s so hyper-competitive that he just refuses to lose battles. Combine that with a hockey sense and skill-set and you get certainly one of the great Red Wings.”
Kronwall, who plays through a chronic knee ailment that can’t be remedied without career-ending surgery, draws inspiration from watching what his friend Zetterberg deals with to play on a nightly basis following 2013 back surgery.
“I see what he’s gone through and that just makes you want to do the same thing,” Kronwall said. “Not that it’s close by any means, but anytime you go through something, all you have to do is look at him and realize what he’s gone through. There’s a lot of people that have it worse than us. So no matter what comes at you, just find a way through.”
Green Update
Defenseman Mike Green, who has missed the past five games due to an upper-body injury, traveled with the team to New York for Sunday’s game against the Rangers, but it was not known if he’d be able to play.
It’s unclear if Green’s ongoing ailment is making teams wary of moving on him before Monday's NHL trade deadline.
Clear Day
AHL clear day rosters - only players on the roster on clear day are eligible to compete in the Calder Cup playoffs - is also Monday. That means if the Wings want goalie Jared Coreau or left-winger Tyler Bertuzzi to be eligible for the playoffs, they’d be required to assign them to AHL Grand Rapids tomorrow, even if it were merely a paper transaction and they were recalled the next day without ever actually leaving Detroit.
It would however, require the Wings to use up two of their four post-trade deadline call ups.
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