Update (2:35 PM): Ansar Khan has more here. - Matt
Bruce MacLeod reports that Nick Lidstrom will miss the next three weeks as a result of Ian Laperriere’s hit Monday night. He has a sprained medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his right knee and because the team is sure to take every precaution, you can bet that three weeks is more of a minimum. The earliest we can expect to see him back is March 13 against Dallas.
The good news is that it does not look like he as a concussion, though he still has to undergo more tests.
I’m quite thankful it didn’t turn out to be a season-ending injury or something, but this sucks. A lot can happen over three weeks. The Wings have not had to go that long without #5 since he entered the League and it happens this season, of all seasons? This will be a heavy test of the team’s leadership capabilities, to be sure.
The adversity did not end with the skid-halting 4-0 win over Colorado Monday night. It just started.
I knew I shouldn’t have believed all that 7-10 days crap! Seems like the length of injury always just goes up and up as the days go by. It’s like those worthless “time left” boxes that come up in windows to tell you how much time it will take something to install - except the time always seems to go up instead of down. Argh.
Just out of curiosity, what’s so special about this season?
The fact that Wings’ dominance has them in the best position to make a run for the Cup that they’ve had in years. Lidstrom’s “three week” injury doesn’t directly effect the team’s playoff chances per se, but it could have bearing on their place in the standings.
Funny that we’re worried about keeping our place atop the standings this year, when last year we were dying for anything but the President’s Trophy and the “curse” that accompanies it.
Ellis was put on wavers today, I’m a bit surprised. I’d rather see him playing than hartigan.
Yeah, but last year the Wings were just good. This season, they’ve been exceptionally so and I would like to see them roll up the accolades.
I guess, though, the President’s Trophy isn’t a big deal. I’m more worried that Nick’s downtime will hurt his Norris and Hart candidacies.
James Mirtle suggested yesterday that if Nick were to miss the rest of the season, “it’d be a stretch to think he could still be named the league’s top defenceman while missing the final 20 games.” Obviously Nick isn’t going to miss the rest of the season, but I’d hate to see him lose votes just because he missed three weeks.
When it comes down to it, there isn’t really much danger of Lidstrom losing his spot as the top Norris candidate, but this probably means the end of his Hart bid. And that’s a real shame, because he deserves it.
As long as he doesn’t get claimed by another team, this will be good for him.
If I had to choose a player to designate as a practice drone and the choices were Mark Hartigan and Matt Ellis, I’d take Hartigan every time. Players like Ellis deserve to play and that just doesn’t seem to be in the cards for Matt this season. Downey has been able to find a niche and Babcock values Drake’s experience, but Ellis’ work ethic isn’t enough this year, apparently.
At least this way, he’ll be able to help out Grand Rapids, while Hartigan isn’t likely to crack the lineup as long as everyone stays healthy.
If I had to choose between letting Ellis be a practice drone or losing him, he’d be practicing. I agree it’ll be best if he manages to get through. Here’s hoping.
Ummm….XM radio had a bit on today that had Ken Holland saying that he
was going to offer a contract to McCarty in the next couple of days.
He scored again Tuesday night. Could that be the reason for Ellis being put on waivers?
Scott,
I doubt it. From what I’ve read about it, the Wings are only signing McCarty to give him the opportunity to get in shape over the rest of the AHL season. He’s only signed to a professional tryout at the moment and that expires before too long. He’s performed well enough to get a formal contract. The goal is not to bring him up to Detroit, at least not yet. Maybe down the road, but for now, they’re talking about keeping him in Grand Rapids.
Also, if they were sending Ellis down in order to bring McCarty up, they wouldn’t have called up Hartigan in exchange.