On the Wings

Bad news: the Freep reports that Henrik Zetterberg will miss 2-3 weeks with an inflammed disk in his back. He had spasms in practice on Monday during practice, and through no problem was found on the initial MRI, a second scan revealed some damage, which Ken Holland says is nothing significant. However, he is expected to rest 7-10 days in hopes that the inflammation subsides.

As bad as it is to have Hank out for so long, a down time of 2-3 weeks means he won’t miss playoff time. There’s the good news.

Matt Hussey, who was sent back to GR today, will return to Detroit to help fill in, beginning Friday against Chicago.

Aside from Zetterberg, the Wings’ injury list stands at Dan Cleary (2-3 weeks, knee sprain), Todd Bertuzzi (2-4 weeks, back) and Mikael Samuelsson (1-2 weeks, broken foot).

As Helene St. James points out, the Wings fortunately have a fairly light schedule to round out the year, with not as much travel as they’ve had over the past couple months, and fewer teams against tough opponents.

However, they do play the Predators four more times (March 6th, 13th, 14th, and 29th), three of which will come before any of the injured Wings, except perhaps Samuelsson, are likely to return. Not good, especially given those games are very important in the race for first place in the Division/Conference.