When the eyes of the hockey world were firmly fixated on the Olympic Semi-Finals Friday morning, Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg underwent back surgery to repair a herniated disc. The Swedish vet withdrew from the Sochi games after just one game and the rest of his NHL season fell into uncertainty.
With the race for the 2014 playoffs shaping up to be a tight one, losing Zetterberg is an especially hard hit to take for the Winged Wheel and could impact the moves they could make at the trade deadline. On a brighter note, but also one that may make deadline decisions even trickier, Red Wings brass reported that Zetterberg’s surgery went extremely well and an updated prognosis puts Z back in the lineup in eight weeks.
That eight week timeline would have the captain ready for action about a week after the Red Wings last regular season game. If the Wings can hold on to a playoff spot, they could have their leading scorer back in the lineup for the first round of the playoffs.
Do the Wings try and and add firepower to replace Zetterberg’s production down the stretch or do they rely on the pieces they have in place to pick up the slack? If this season has indicated anything, it’s that the Wings are capable of rallying in the faec of injuries to key players...sometimes.
There are games where the team pulls together and gets the job done in spite of having five, six, or seven regulars out of the lineup, but then there have also been games where that isn’t the case. Time and time again, the players and coaches refuse to use injuries as an excuse for poor execution but the absence of key players is just too great to look past.
If a sniper is what Ken Holland wants to pursue, Eklund has Thomas Vanek ranked as a potential candidate to end up in a Red Wings jersey by the end of the season. Vanek has almost a point per game in 44 games this season and could definitely bring an added scoring touch to the lineup.
More on potential deadline deals and previews for the the upcoming games against Montreal and Ottawa to follow!