The Detroit Red Wings finally wrap up their five-game, 11-day road trip tonight in Calgary against the Flames.
The biggest development for the Wings this week was the loss of forward Valtteri Filppula, who broke his wrist on Thursday evening in a game against Edmonton. He will be out 6-8 weeks.
“Obviously, I feel terrible,” said Filppula, who recently was moved up to the second line. “But there’s nothing I can do about it now.”
The injury occurred on a hard, clean check by Gilbert Brule.
“It’s a big blow, obviously,” Babcock said. “We’re going to have to buckle down as a team. It doesn’t matter who’s not here. It’s about who is here. We are going to miss Fil. You don’t replace good players like that. But we have to find a way to win games.”
In other news, Ville Leino has been scratched from the lineup today which I find surprising since they lost Filppula to injury, but head coach Mike Babcock has made it clear he has not been pleased with Leino’s play so far this season.
“Ville’s not working on any line. That’s clear. He’s having a day to watch,” Babcock said. “He hasn’t played hard enough, so he’s going to watch the game and the other guys are going to play.’’
Chris Osgood will get the start in net tonight and here’s what he told The Detroit News about it:
“I feel good,” he said. “I have to play better than I did in Vancouver, but it was only (seven) minutes. I would have hoped to stay in but I didn’t get that opportunity. I have to let that go and move on.”
The Calgary Herald spoke with Todd Bertuzzi, who played for the Flames last year, about his return to the Wings this season.
You can catch tonight’s game on CBC and FSDetroit Plus when the puck drops at 10 p.m. EDT. Don’t know which channel FSDetroit Plus is on? Visit this page at FoxSports.com for that info. Go Wings!
