Breaking stuff from the Detroit News...

The Red Wings sent forward Justin Abdelkader to Grand Rapids on Friday in anticipation of two player moves this weekend.

Forward Jason Williams (broken leg) will play Friday night against the Predators at Joe Louis Arena, and forward Tomas Holmstrom is expected to be back in the lineup Sunday when Detroit travels to Pittsburgh.

With those players returning, the Red Wings were over the 23-man roster limit by one, thus the decision to send Abdelkader to Grand Rapids.

Well, we all kind of new this move was coming...I did, anyway.  I've wanted Abdelkader in GR all season long.  It's nothing personal, I love the kid.  But I just didn't feel like he was ready for full-time prime-time.  He'll log a ton of minutes in GR which will certainly aid in his development.  Since Leino and May weren't options to send down, he was the obvious choice.

It's not personal kid, it's simply business.

Thanks again to CBSsports.com for providing us with the bad news...

The little "IR" next to Williams is looking more and more likely to disappear for tonight's game.  Khan(!) provides the juice from yesterday...

"He tells us he's ready to go.  We'll make the final decision at the morning skate. But it appears he's ready to go.''--Kenny Holland

Don't hold your breath waiting for news from that morning skate.

I'm not so naive that I think Detroit is the only team going through injury problems...but I will say that they pretty much have it worse than any other team (aside from Edmonton).

But as we head into tonight's game, it's not without a little relief to inform you that Nashville has its own set of injury woes.  I got this from the Tennessean.com try and use the "good ol' boy" accent in your head when reading the italicized text:

Predators Coach Barry Trotz said center Marcel Goc (upper body) won't play against the Red Wings and forward Joel Ward (groin) will make the trip but is unlikely to play.

He described forward Wade Belak (foot) as "really questionable."

"He's a day or two away," Trotz said.

Goc is a pretty solid player...he used to play for the Sharks for those of you that remember.  He's also probably the only German Olympian that I can think of off the top of my head.  Joel Ward is like Bubba's version of Dan Cleary, so I'm not going to be heart-broken if he doesn't play.  I don't know much about Wade Belak...but yeah, screw him too.

We have another opportunity tonight.  We can pull even in points with Nashville, though they'll remain ahead of us in points.  We can also take the 8th spot away from Calgary again, who managed to squeaze another point out of the Puppy Dogs down in the desert.

The teams ahead of us keep winning (aside from Calgary), we need to follow suit.

Here's an addendum to the "Much Ado About Franzen" piece.  Only this time, it's not Twig, or Eats, or even Baroque chiming in...it's Kenny Holland himself talking to the Detroit News:

"If he is healthy and playing well, it would be kind of hard for me to tell him not to play.  I had a brief talk with him (Wednesday) and I just told him, 'We have to be smart about this.  We have to see how you feel.' The only way to be smart is to get more information, and the only way to do that is through time. We just have to wait.  If he's cleared to play, if he gets in shape and is playing great, if there are no complications with the knee and if he's invited to play, then it's his call.  But that's a lot of ifs."

Well there you have it, kiddies. We're just going to have to wait and see.

In Franzen we trust?

Miss St. James of the Free Press provides us with this informational gem...

General manager Ken Holland said Stuart is day-to-day after spraining his left shoulder Wednesday.

You call that an update?  Bloody hell...I could have told the Free Press that and they could have called me "an insider".

Well, it does look like Jason Williams will make his return tomorrow so I'm thinking Kronwall/Williams will backstop the second PP unit...unless you think it's too soon to throw J-Willz out there (rushing him back could still be better than other options).

They didn't practice today after playing back-to-back games so no word on potential lines until tomorrow.

This has been a slow day in all aspects.

While we're waiting on the word from Stuey's check-up today, let's talk about a certain someone we're all dying to have back in the goal-starved Detroit lineup.  The Detroit News points out an interesting issue that is rapidly approaching...

When Franzen gets back, the Wings will have to clear approximately $1.5 million is salary to get below the cap. Again, Holland hasn't given any indication as to how he might do that.

I'm thinking that means bye-bye to Abdelkader.  Even though he leads the team in hits and has been showing marginal improvement over the season, most of us agreed that he would be better served getting the big minutes in Grand Rapids.  That still means someone else would have to go down (or be moved) as well...but who?

Tell you what, you guys can discuss in the comment section or else we'll just worry about that later.

Franzen would like to be back in time to get 5 games in before the Olympic Break, which begins in about a week and a half.  Here's the Mule's thought process about when he should return...

"If I get those games in I get over that little bump you always get in the beginning and then I'm on the same pace as the other guys when we come back from the break.  On the other hand if I rest two more weeks then I get to heal up two more weeks. Were going to talk about it yet."

So two questions are raised from this article:

1. Who gets moved out of the lineup to free up our Cap Space?
2. Would you rather have a rested/rusted or rushed return Franzen?

Via Khan(!)... looks like Brad Stuart has a sprained shoulder.

Stuart felt it on a hit in the first period, but tried to battle through it.  Once the game appeared out of reach, Stuey left the game with an injured shoulder.  He'll be evaluated further today.

"It doesn’t feel good. I could have finished the game. At that point, why risk making it worse?''

Oh wonderful.

Whew boy, that was a stinker last night.  Ozzie lateral movement was baffling.  He looked horrible last night.  Since Twig (one of the 5-6 regular commenters here at NOHS) always leaves a gem for me to find when I get into the office...might as well start making a regular post-game reaction section out of it.

Think you can top my man Twig?  You're welcome to try.  Here's what he had to say about last night's game...

written by Twig, January 27, 2010
games like this are why i quit blogging. thank you for continuing and giving me a place to destroy my keyboard.

It was a tough one to watch, that's for sure.  When a team scores 3 goals on 8 shots in the first period...your team is probably not going to win.  I admittedly turned the game off after the 5th one went in and watched my recorded Jimmie Johnson 24/7: Race to Daytona on HBO...far less stressful.

Since Calgary forced a shootout with Dallas last night (and lost), they still secured one more point than we did last night to draw even with us.  We're officially out of the top eight again.  Nashville awaits us tomorrow, they've been idle for a few days.  A win will even us up with Bubba in the points department, but not in the standings because we've played an extra game.

Remember to bring a smoke detector to the game on the morrow if you're going, it might just save someone's life.

Khan(!) with the lines for tonight...

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Cleary
Bertuzzi-Filppula-Miller
Draper-Helm-Eaves
May-Abdelkader-Maltby

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Meech-Stuart
Kronwall-Ericsson

Osgood (starting)
Howard

Back to back games means it's Ozzie's time to shine.  Dust off the cob-webs, Chris...you're going in.

But the big news comes from the stable where The Mule is being kept...

"I'm good to go when I feel ready.  Maybe a couple more weeks. (The knee) doesn't hurt.''--Johan Franzen

Franzen met with doctors yesterday who have cleared him to play.  Now he just needs to get back in shape.  All of you out there who have actually played hockey know that being in good stationary bike, treadmill, or even regular biking and running shape is NOT the same as being in good skating shape.  The legs can get pretty heavy out there, and Franzen knows this all too well...

"I haven't used them in 3 1/2 months.  One practice I skated hard, then I was sore the rest of the week.  It's going to take its time.  The way I feel now after one hard practice, I need two rest days to get back. I got to improve that.''

Jason Williams is said to be good to go for Friday, so long as he gets the green light.

And why are we playing Derek Meech instead of Bret Lebda?  Two NOHS readers are about to see their debate come to a head.

Now that we've all had time to calm down (and in my case, put other issues ahead of the Wings' problems) for a while, let's look at what few good things we can take away from last night...

1. Kronwall looked g-r-r-r-eat for his first game back -a welcome addition.
2. Patrick Eaves IS the new Dan Cleary.  Message to Kenny Holland - lock this guy up for at least 5 years BEFORE the season is over.
3. Best game for the Euro Twins in a long time.
4. We did get one point, it's not what we wanted, but better than nothing (I guess).
5. We're still in the top eight in the Western Conference
6. As of right now, the injury report looks like this...

Let's let calmer heads prevail.  So we've blown leads against Washington, Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Phoenix in consecutive games (man, that looks bad)...there's still tonight.  How about two full points and zero for the opponents?  It's do-able.  Let's pull within one of Nashville. 

 If both we and Dallas take care of business tonight, we'll still be in good shape and primed to climb the standings as more of our guys get healthy.