FanHouse Detroit Red Wings

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.

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 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.

The Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins meet for the second time this season Sunday afternoon on NBC. The Penguins hold a 1-0 advantage in the regular season Finals rematch series with a come from behind win on November 11th.

The two teams have had trouble since that game, but have found success in their recent games. Detroit won its third in a row Saturday with an 8-3 decision over Edmonton, and Pittsburgh has won its last two. Both teams will look to continue their respective turnarounds today. Hit the jump to read the discussion resident Pens guy Adam Gretz and I had on the game Saturday afternoon.

The Detroit Red Wings continued their sluggish recovery from five-game losing streak Wednesday with 5-4 win over the Phoenix Coyotes. The game came two nights after an ugly win over St. Louis and was just the Wings' fourth in ten games.

It was a game of role reversals relative to Monday's against the Blues. Whereas Monday it was Chris Osgood who kept his team in it and put them in a position to win in shootout, Wednesday it was Osgood's teammates who carried their goaltender to a tick up in his win column.

The Detroit Red Wings defeated the St. Louis Blues, 4-3, in shootout Monday night to bring an 0-4-1 skid to a halt. It was perhaps their ugliest win of the season, as they allowed 33 shots to the last-place Blues while mustering just 21 of their own.

The win should provide a boost to a team struggling under the weight of injuries to key players such as Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Holmstrom and Brad Stuart. Their troubles in recent weeks have been reminiscent of last season's awful, injury-plagued month of February, their worst of the season. Last night may have been what the team needed to snap out of it.

The Detroit Red Wings and the Washington Capitals face off today at 12:30 ET for the one and only time this season. Although the game could be considered a potential Stanley Cup Finals matchup, it hasn't received a lot of hype this week. Eric McErlain and I discussed the game Friday, covering topics ranging from the matchups to the future of both franchises. To a fan who rarely gets to see Washington in action, Eric had a lot to offer. Hit the jump to check out what he had to say.