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Who Will Come To Their Defense? |
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It might be time, at least temporarily, to refer to them as the Etroit Red Wings, because they are running out of D at a rapid rate.
Trevor Daley joined Danny DeKeyser (upper body) and Mike Green (lower body) and the shelf when he missed Monday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers with a lower-body injury.
“Daley has a broken foot and he’ll be out 3-5 weeks,” Wings coach Jeff Blashill told Mlive.com. “We expect it’ll be a couple weeks with Green and DeKeyser.”
That’s just more bad news for a team that is now on a 2-7-3 skid in their last 12 games, and when short of its veteran D corps, the numbers are appalling.
Monday was the team’s second game this season minus Daley, Green and DeKeyser. The Wings are 0-1-1 in those games and were outscored 11-6. They are 2-5-3 when Daley doesn’t play, 2-11-5 minus Green and 7-11-3 without DeKeyser. The Wings are 7-4-1 when Daley, DeKeyser and Green are in the lineup together.
Minus that trio, Nick Jensen and Niklas Kronwall, normally the third defense pairing, are logging first-tandem minutes, and then some. Jensen played 28:21 in the loss to the Panthers.
“I don’t think he’s playing 28 if Green, DeKeyser and Daley are in the lineup,” Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “That’s not a knock on Nick. We don’t really have a D that’s going to play 28. Those are rarities in the league. We don’t have that guy.”
Kronwall skated 23:20 and Jonathan Ericsson, the third remaining veteran, logged 22:00. Rookie Filip Hronek, playing just his 15th NHL game, was out there for 23:37.
Not so long ago the kid in the room, Jensen can relate to the ups and downs of being thrown into the fire.
“You’ve got some of these guys that are trying to learn the game, you’ve got some of the best forwards in the league coming down on you, forechecking you and trying to take the puck away and put it in your own net,” Jensen said. “So it’s definitely not easy. But if you want to play in this league, you’re going to have to find a way to do it.”
Look for the Wings to make a roster move along the blueline, perhaps as soon as prior to Wednesday’s game against the Calgary Flames.
“I think we need to get a seventh guy up here,” Blashill said. “We’re looking at at least a week before we have somebody else. I’m not going to walk around with six D, something could happen.
“We’re going to call a seventh D up. They won’t necessarily be in the lineup.”
Helm To Return
Barring any unforeseen developments prior to game time, forward Darren Helm will return to the Wings lineup for Wednesday’s game against the Flames. He’s been out since Nov. 21 with a shoulder injury.
“I expect Helm to be ready for tomorrow,” Blashill said. “We’ll make final determination tomorrow after pre-game skate but I expect him to be ready tomorrow.”
Helm has missed 21 games since being hurt Nov. 17 against the New Jersey Devils.
“The shoulder feels good,” said Helm, who resumed practicing with the team late last week. “I’ve been skating for a while, and the legs feel good.”
His return should bolster a penalty-killing unit that is succeeding at a dismal 58.3 percent success rate over Detroit’s last five games.
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