Wow... A Whole Lot Of Red Wings News!

A whole lot has happened in the first few weeks of the NHL season. A whole host of injuries, a .500 record and one point squeezed from one of our losses. A few call ups and one signing, and lastly, some expectations have not been met.

Injuries:

Injuries have sort of become a story of this season. Before game one, there was already a line to the infirmary. Bertuzzi had mono, except that he didn't. Helm strained his back lifting weights, had an MRI (nothing showed), played 1 game and the team looked good, except that he had a setback and hasn't played since. Gustavsson, like a whole lot of other Wings, has a groin injury. Colaiacovo has a shoulder injury, a product of his glass bones and such. White was cut by Jimmy Howard's skate blade and has a "laceration." Ericsson was gone for a few games because he stepped on a puck in practice. I could go on and on about the injuries. Awesome news today... Smith is out 3-4 weeks with a shoulder sprain.
Injuries can decimate a roster, and to some extent, they have done that to our beloved Wings. The crazy thing for me is that, on another team, this could make the team not function. I am not hitting the panic button just yet, I could be insane for that but it doesn't seem like the right time to do so.

Part of the reason that I'm not hitting that button is...

Call Ups and Signings

With injuries come call ups from the AHL. We called up Brian Lashoff, an undrafted prospect who was never really supposed to be good. Surprising all of us, he performed well and was becoming a very dependable defenseman, until Jakub Kindl came back from injury and took his spot. Kindl's time in Detroit is now in the "put up or shut up" phase. If he doesn't pan out this year, it could be his last in Detroit. On a day when we had five, yes FIVE, healthy defensemen, we signed Kent Huskins. Huskins is becoming a very reliable D-man. We had a scare when David Backes hit him hard in our 5-3 win over St Louis on Friday. Luckily, he's okay and it was more a scare than a legitimate threat.

This is me... I'm so excited, I just can't hide it -- Feel free to finish
that line in your head.

Just yesterday, Sunday, the Wings recalled Tomas Tatar and Petr Mrazek. I AM HAVING A HARD TIME CONTAINING MY EXCITEMENT ABOUT THIS!!!! (<--- don't know if you could tell...) Tatar has made some noise with his dislike of how much time he has spent in the American Hockey League. Mrazek has rocketed from the OHL to the NHL in a matter of four months. He's coming up to Detroit having just had is first AHL shutout. Tatar is arriving in Detroit, despite the fact that Gustav Nyquist is leading the Griffins in points. Tatar, I believe, was called up to be inserted on the 3rd or 4th line. Nyquist would not suit that role, which is the reason that he was not called upon.

Those Who Need To Step Up

Kronwall, Quincey, Cleary, and the third/fourth line.

Kronwall: I think he's trying too hard to be Lidstrom, and frankly, it's not working for him. He has at least one minor penalty in every game so far, so that needs to end and he needs to get back to this...

KRONWALL'D

Quincey: It's all bad. He's had one, or two, good games but.... 

Moving on:

Cleary: He's just been bad in all areas of the ice. It's not that Buckets is not doing well, it's just that he's not been the same since he injured his knees last year. I have a very distinct feeling that it's either he gets better really soon, and he stays, or he keeps going this way, and is gone relatively soon. 

OVERALL:

I think that the team will be fine. If injuries to a big chunk of the roster only gives us a .500 record, I don't think that it is panic time. I believe that the call ups we have and Kent Huskins, the signing we made, will prove to be a good thing for the team going forward. I have to believe that the team will step up and stop being so bi-polar or else I will go insane. I'm keeping the faith in my team.

Until next time...

LET'S GO RED WINGS!