Matt Saler Posts

Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press has the latest from Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland on the contract talks with Johan Franzen and Marian Hossa, and the team's economic situation. George Malik of mLive's Snapshots blog picks up the discussion with a look at the tough questions the Wings face. [Free Press, Snapshots]

The Detroit Red Wings' Tomas Holmstrom will sit out Tuesday's game against Philadelphia with a knee strain. He apparently suffered the injury during the team's 4-0 win over Columbus Sunday when his skate caught a rut. He is listed as day-to-day.

Holmstrom has already missed 26 games this season due to injury. He underwent his second sports hernia surgery in less than a year in early February, and was only four games into a return from that injury after sitting out 18. For a player who takes such a ridiculous amount of abuse on a nightly basis, he's been remarkably resilient over the years. This just hasn't been his season.

Marian Hossa is slated to return to the lineup Saturday in St. Louis after four games missed due to neck, back, and knee injuries. It looks like he'll skate with Henrik Zetterberg and Dan Cleary against the Blues and the player that caused his injuries a week and a half ago, Roman Polak. [mLive]

Buried in Detroit's wild, exciting, disappointing, dominant, pathetic, frustrating and strange shootout loss to Calgary Thursday night was an unequivocal bright spot for Red Wings fans: Henrik Zetterberg's thundering center ice shoulder check on the Flames' Dion Phaneuf.

Zetterberg, not known for physical play, was no doubt looking to exact some revenge for Phaneuf's earlier hit on linemate Dan Cleary. Cleary had to leave the game for half a period with an ankle injury as a result of yet another example of the kind of numbskull play Phaneuf has made his trademark. Whether it was revenge or not, tt was good stuff in a game full of things for Wings fans to be depressed about. Video below:

Update: The latest out of Detroit says Hossa is out Thursday, but possible for Saturday. - 3:58 PM

Detroit Red Wings forward Marian Hossa is about ready to come back from a bout with soreness that came as a result of an awkward collision (YouTube) during the team's 5-0 win over St. Louis on March 3rd. He has skated this week and will return to the lineup Thursday night against Calgary if he checks out in the morning skate.

The big Slovak has missed four full games already with a combination sore knee, sore neck, and sore back. Fortunately, tests following the incident did not reveal any long-lasting damage. Hossa and the Wings dodged a big bullet. They'll now hope he won't get injured in his second return from similar injuries in a week and a half.

The troubled defense of the Detroit Red Wings took a hit Monday with the news that Andreas Lilja would be placed on the long-term injury list in order to allow him time to recover from a concussion suffered during a fight in the team's 8-0 loss to Nashville on February 28th. The big Swedish defensemen has been dealing with daily headaches since about the third punch of the tussle with Shea Weber (YouTube).

Lilja left the game after the fight, and hasn't returned to the ice since. He underwent tests in the days following the game, but had further tests Monday when his symptoms didn't abate. He has missed three games already, and will miss his fourth tonight when the Wings face Phoenix. He is not eligible to return until March 27th, after ten games out of the lineup.

The defending Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings have hit a couple significant road bumps this month in their bid to repeat. Those bumps came in the form of a pair of Saturday losses in which they surrendered a total of 16 goals to possible first-round opponents. The losses provided a stark reminder of the team's major issue this season: defense.

The big news out of Detroit today is the call-up of goaltending prospect Jimmy Howard from the team's AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. The move comes at the expense of a struggling Chris Osgood, who will sit out the next ten days " to get a mental breather and clear his mind and work with (goaltending coach) Jim Bedard," as GM Ken Holland told mLive's Ansar Khan.

Howard will back up Ty Conklin in tonight's home game against Anaheim. He will start tomorrow night in Minnesota and is expected to be sent back to Grand Rapids after the game. The move allows the Wings a chance to get a look at Howard at the NHL level, something they have not gotten since this time last year (Februry 23rd).

Johan Franzen has declared himself ready to return to the lineup, reports Detroit beat writer Ansar Khan. The big Swedish forward has been out since taking a teammate's shot off his hand in the team's February 7 win over Edmonton.

Franzen's return will bump a forward from the lineup, though head coach Mike Babcock would provide no information on who will sit. He told Khan that he may keep Ville Leino in the lineup, which narrows the choice down to the veteran Kirk Maltby and the young Tomas Kopecky. Given his somewhat lackluster season, Kopecky may be the odd man out here.

The Central Division rival Detroit Red Wings and Nashville Predators met for just the second time this season Tuesday night in Tennessee. The result was 5-3, which is about the score you'd expect, except when you drop Pavel Datsyuk's late empty-netter.

The Wings outshot the Predators 51-21, but came disturbingly close to losing. They led 3-0 after five minutes into the second period, but the game was within a goal of being tied by a minute after the halfway mark. Detroit pulled head again, only to see the Predators come within one goal, again. What should have been a clear-cut win turned out to be in doubt until the final minute.