Kopecky Out For Game 5

by Casey Richey on May 8, 2009 5:03 PM CDT in News

Tomas Kopecky who decided to drop the gloves with Anaheim D Francois Beauchemin, has been ruled out for Sunday's Game 5 in Detroit. Unfortunately, Kopeck's face met Beauchemin's fists several times in the losing effort for the fight.

This leaves several options for Babcock and his staff to decide upon a replacement for Kopecky. Kris Draper is still listed as doubtful for the game and with the end of the Grand Rapids Griffins' season, the Wings called up three forwards in Ville Leino, Aaron Downey, and Justin Abdelkader. Leino and Downey are the more likely of the two to get the spot. Downey is an enforcer and can be used against the physical Ducks team while Leino is more of an offensive weapon.

In case you missed it, and for some reason want to see Kopecky lose the fight, here it is:

PAINFULLY UPDATED: Apparently, Kopecky needs facial surgery. Yikes. Paging Aaron Downey to drop the gloves next time.

Poll

Who would you most want to see replace Kopecky in the line-up for Game 5?

Ville Leino

251 votes

Aaron Downey

251 votes

Justin Abdelkader

92 votes

594 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 6 comments | 0 recs |

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Comments

Kopecky replacement

Meech would have played if not for the call ups. Kopecky is a fourth liner and a big body. I say replace him with someone who plays the same game as Kopecky. Leino is good, but i don’t know if he is ready to play against the Ducks in the playoffs. If it was any other team I would say yes, but I think a player like Abdelkader would be more effective against Anaheim. He is a big physical player with speed. If the Wings lost a skill player, then definitely replace with Leino. But Kopecky is a grinder and they need to replace that aspect of his game. I really don’t think Downey will play because he won’t get very many minutes anyways. I say put in either Meech or Abdelkader. They need to get Abdelkader some playoff experience anyways. He and Helm are the replacements for Draper and Maltby when they are gone.

by dewman8810 on May 9, 2009 12:06 AM CDT reply actions

In this series I think they might want someone like Downey...

First of all, yes he wouldn’t play much, but neither did Kopecky. We need a guy who can beat them up. Kopecky tried and failed, but I haven’t seen Downey lose any fights the two years he’s been with Detroit, neither have I seen him back down. I wanna see him out there when Pronger and Beauchemin are out there, so he can beat the crap out of them.

by ZWC11 on May 9, 2009 1:45 PM CDT reply actions

Kopecky replacement

I have to agree with dewman get Abdelkader in there, he is physical and has good speed. The Ducks are ready for the taking we need that physical play to continue. Wings in 6

by WingfaninTx on May 9, 2009 5:58 PM CDT reply actions

No more fights please!

I hate it when Wings fans think we should fight more, I like fights but for our team to do so serves no purpose and now we have two fight related injuries. I voted Leino, no way should Downey be in, he is brutal.

add my twitter: http://twitter.com/ofhdhdy

by adamgreuel on May 9, 2009 6:38 PM CDT reply actions