Draper to miss first two playoff games

Head coach Mike Babcock announced that Kris Draper would miss the first two games of the first round series against Columbus. The upper-body injury still allows him to practice with the team, but prevents him from playing in a game. As a result, Darren Helm has been recalled from Grand Rapids and inserted into the lineup.

Additionally, Dan Cleary appeared to have suffered some sort of injury during practice this morning according to Bruce MacLeod of the Macomb Daily. Just because he left the ice early doesn't mean he won't be able to play on Thursday, but it certainly is not an encouraging sign.

Bruce reports that these were the lines in practice after Cleary left:

Holmstrom-Datsyuk-Hossa
Franzen-Zetterberg-Samuelsson
Hudler-Filppula-Kopecky
Draper-Helm-Maltby

Andreas Lilja will also miss playoff action until further notice. Before today, Lilja was the only player with a known serious injury that would keep a player out of the lineup. With the possibility that Lilja, Draper and Cleary may all miss action, that is certainly a discouraging idea. IwoCPO at Abel to Yzerman is all aboard the stress train when he learned about the injuries. It just wouldn't feel like the playoffs without a little stress now would it?