On the Wings

Update (10:48 PM): TSN is reporting that Cleary will have surgery to repair his jaw and will miss 6-8 weeks (thanks Brian). That would put his return at the March 22nd game in Columbus at the earliest.

Or the first round of the playoffs at the latest.

This obviously is a major blow to the team’s secondary scoring capabilities. However, they do have the personnel to pick up the slack, so a trade is not a necessity by any means.

Mike Babcock sent a message to Jiri Hudler today by benching him (turns out it wasn’t an injury after all). Clearly, one goal in ten games is not going to cut it and Babcock’s move will put the other forwards on notice as well.

Johan Franzen, in particular, should benefit from this turn of events. Here’s hoping he fills Cleary’s shoes like we know he can.

Another positive spin on this? It means Cleary won’t get traded.  - Matt

The Wings lost 3-2 in overtime to the Maple Leafs today, but more importantly they lost Dan Cleary. The Red Wings forward took a Mikael Samuelsson shot to the face and suffered a nondisplaced fracture of his jaw in the first period. He did not return and will not play tomorrow against Anaheim.

Mike Babcock told Bruce MacLeod,

“I don’t have a timeline or anything like that. We’ll find out when we get back. Our doctors will have a better idea.”

For comparison, we can look to LA Kings defenseman Rob Blake, who suffered a nondisplaced ankle fracture  on January 15th. Blake played six games until he was taken out of the lineup at the start of February. He is expected to miss a total of two weeks.

We’ll know more tomorrow, but we can probably expect Cleary to miss close to the rest of the month.  This is a big loss, to be sure. The strong play of the Wings’ second line of Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula, and Mikael Samuelsson today softens the blow, however.