Great news out of Detroit today, as we get news that Brad Stuart has been cleared to play in Thursday's game against the Lightning. 

The stalwart stay-at-home defenseman has missed 15 games since taking a blindside hit from Tom Kostopoulos in Calgary on January 7th which broke his jaw.  During that stretch, the Wings went 8-6-1, but only managed to give up fewer than three goals in five of those contests (all wins). 

On the other major half of the Wings' injury news, Center Mike Modano, who has played in only 20 of Detroit's games this season, says that he's targeting the February 26th tilt agains the Buffalo Sabres as his return date.  Of course, he answered the question on everybody's mind about why he wasn't targeting February 24th against the Stars (as reported by The Macomb Daily's Chuck Pleiness):

"There would probably be a lot of distractions," Modano said if he was to return against his former team. "First game back and it has to be against the, I just think it's too much. You need to think with your head and not with your heart."

 Excellent to see the guys getting healthy in time for the playoff push.