He won’t be ready for Friday’s regular-season opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Joe Louis Arena, but barring a setback, it won’t be long after that when forward Darren Helm suits up for his first game of the season for the Detroit Red Wings.
“I feel pretty good,… Helm said after practising Wednesday. “It’ll just take a few more days of pushing it and sticking with the gameplan of progressively doing more and more, skating harder and harder.
“I feel good but I just want to continue keeping track of the plan we made right off the bat. Things have worked so far so we’re just going to continue that.…
Helm suffered a concussion and shoulder separation in a collision with Jerome Verrier during the first day of the Wings’ training camp in Traverse City, Mich.
“It’s a setback for sure,… Helm said of missing all of training camp and the exhibition season. “Especially those (pre-season) games. You miss four or five games where you get back into the feel of how to play.
“The first five days of camp everybody’s working so hard you’ve got to work hard to stick with the pack. You miss that and you’re already back behind the eight-ball so much.
“Every time I’ve been on the ice I’ve tried to push it really hard. Sometimes they don’t keep me on the ice too much. I think now it’s starting to open up a little bit and try to get some of that training camp I missed in the next few days.…
Helm met Tuesday with neurosurgeon Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher and is confident that he is moving quickly past his concussion issue.
“I haven’t had really a lot of symptoms,… Helm said. “I’ve had a few headaches here and there, but they’ve been few and far between, which is good.
“Every time I’ve done more and more, nothing’s really sparked it. Everything’s kind of stayed the same and I’ve been able to just keep moving with the gameplan that we’ve set out and it’s been working well.…
As much as he wanted to play in the opener, Helm recognizes that patience is the best approach.
“I was kind of shooting for Friday but I think that’s kind of been taken off the table,… Helm said. “I haven’t had a training camp. I haven’t done much. I’ve only practiced with the team once so to throw me in a game right away that might be bad for myself and for the team.
“A couple more days of skating hard and try to get that training camp kind of feel the next couple of days and hopefully I can be ready for next week.…
Kindl Close Defenseman Jakub Kindl (eye infection) is another Wing who shouldn’t be long on the sidelines.
“I shouldn’t have been around the last few (days), which I wasn’t to make sure no one gets infected,… Kindl said. “They wanted me to stay away from my teammates so I skated on my own with the strength and conditioning coach (Mike Kadar). “I’m good. I took antibiotics and it went away.…
Marchenko Near Defenseman Alexey Marchenko (groin) is yet another injured Wing who figures it won’t be long until he’s cleared and out of sick bay.
“I feel better and better every day,… Marchenko said. “I skated the whole practice today. The day before I skated three-quarters of the practice, so it's getting better.
“I'm like a couple days (away) - one, two, three days - that's it.…
Cleary Waived Whoever is first to be activated off the injured list, it will be veteran forward Daniel Cleary who makes way for them.
Cleary was placed on waivers Wednesday, Detroit coach Jeff Blashill confirmed.
“Yeah, Clears was placed on waivers,… Blashill said. “He’s on waivers right now, so we have a 24-hour period (to see if he’s claimed by another NHL team). We’ll see at noon (Thursday) how that goes.…
As to Cleary’s future with the organization, everyone was taking a wait-and-see approach.
“I don’t want to speculate on anything besides he’s on waivers right now,… Blashill said.
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