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Overshadowing last night's preseason opening 2-1 victory in Pittsburgh was the laundry list of ailments hindering several Wing players after only 60 minutes of action. Given last year's overwhelming number of injuries incurred by the Red Wings, Monday night's preseason debut certainly did not set the tone the hockey club desired for its 2014-15 campaign when it comes to staying healthy.
Without question, the biggest concern surrounds Pavel Datsyuk, the recipient of a big bodycheck late in the 3rd period from Pittsburgh's Rob Scuderi. Whether the suspected shoulder injury is substantial or he strictly was removed for precautionary reasons, it undoubtedly was not a great start to the preseason to have their top player not complete the contest....despite scoring the game-winning goal and assisting on Tomas Tatar's opening goal.
Consider the following tweet this morning from Ansar Khan of mlive.com regarding Datsyuk's status:
Pavel Datsyuk said he'll have an MRI on shoulder, likely on Wednesday. Doesn't seem to think it's serious. Estimated he'd be out a week.
— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) September 23, 2014Throw into the mix the broken nose sustained by Darren Helm who seems snake bitten when it comes to injuries in recent seasons and the borderline dirty hit by Pens' Robert Bortuzzo on Ryan Sproul face first into the boards and the early returns appear to be that the injury curse that plagued Detroit last season has not yet left the hockey club. That being said, the indications appear to be that Sproul is fine and was not injured on the play, despite the fact he is not skating today with the club.
On a positive note, all reports indicate the Red Wings received strong goaltending from both Jimmy Howard (25 saves on 26 shots) and Petr Mrazek (10 saves on 10 shots) to attain the victory.
As for tonight, the Wings find themselves in Chicago for their second preseason contest. According to the numerous reports, here is the expected lineup slated to take on the Blackhawks tonight at 8:30pm ET (CSN+ in Chicago for those with access).
Johan Franzen - Henrik Zetterberg - Gustav Nyquist Justin Abdelkader - Stephen Weiss - Kevin Porter Teemu Pulkkinen - Luke Glendening - Mitch Callahan Andrej Nestrasil - Tomas Nosek - Landon Ferraro
Danny DeKeyser - Jakub Kindl Kyle Quincey - Brendan Smith Brian Lashoff - Aaron Rome
Jonas Gustavsson (first two periods) Petr Mrazek (third period)
mark.spizzirri@hockeybuzz.com
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