The Red Wings played four preseason games last week and came out of them with four injuries. With another four up this week, I expect the entire team will be in traction by the time the season starts. Detroit went 2-1-1 in games against Pittsburgh (B), Chicago (A), Chicago (B), and Boston (A-). The wins came against both the B teams while the losses came against the higher-caliber competition.
Unfortunately, only two of those four games were televised anywhere other than inside the arena and the Boston game on Saturday wasn’t even available on radio anywhere. Such is it when you play an eight-game exhibition season and treat your own home games like Bill Wirtz used to.
Detroit has four more games this week and each of them will be on television. Two of them will even be nationally broadcast in the United States.
| Date | Time | Opponent | Television |
| Mon 9/29 | 7:30pm | vs. Toronto | FS-D |
| Wed 10/01 | 7:30pm | vs. Pittsburgh | FS-D, NHLN |
| Fri 10/03 | 7:30pm | @ Toronto | FS-D, Sportsnet |
| Sat 10/04 | 5:30pm | @ Boston | NHLN |
The NHLN games are for the US version of the network, so if you’re in Canada, you’ll be treated to something else. Probably replays of Oilers games from the 80s or infomercials for Tupperware.
At this point, the close-to-the-vest quotes from Mike Babcock about roster spots leads me to believe that things probably aren’t going to be much different from last year in regards to who stays and who goes. It doesn’t appear as though the seven defensemen are going to be any different and if there is going to be movement among the forward corps, it’ll be at the bottom of the roster. I just want the Wings to come through this week healthier than they are now.
Here’s a quick injury rundown:
- Pavel Datsyuk (partial shoulder separation) – Out another 1-3 weeks
- Darren Helm (broken nose & ouchy groin) – Day-to-day
- Ryan Sproul (something shouldery) – Day-to-day
- Gustav Nyquist (knee) – Looks to be ok, probably has Ebola of the knee or something (Kneebola?)/
