The news on Dylan Larkin is not good. How long he’ll be out depends upon whether you are an optimist or a pessimist.
Larkin, the Detroit Red Wings’ top scorer, will miss Saturday’s game at Ottawa against the Senators for certain. But the Wings don’t play again until a Thursday home date against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Larkin was hurt in overtime of Friday’s 3-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“He’s got a strained oblique,” Wings coach Jeff Blashill told Detroitredwings.com. “He’ll be out tonight. We’ll say 1-2 weeks but really one week is our next game at home against Vegas.
“There’s a potential for that, we don’t know. We’ll take the progress day by day and see how he goes.”
Larkin hasn't missed a game since a two-game absence during the 2016-17 season. He was out for a Jan. 24, 2017 game at Boston and a Jan. 25, 2017 game vs. Toronto with an upper-body injury.
Larkin had played 167 consecutive games.
Minus Larkin, Andreas Athanasiou will take over as center on Detroit’s top forward line. Luke Witkowski will draw into the lineup, seeing his first game action since Jan. 8 against the Montreal Canadiens, but it was unclear whether Witkowski, who can play either defense or forward, but who has has been deployed mainly as a defenseman this season, would play up or back. The Wings could opt to go 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
“We’ll play it as we go,” Blashill said.
Jonathan Bernier will get the start in goal.
Cholowski Back
Rookie defenseman Dennis Cholowski, a healthy scratch for Detroit’s final two pre-NHL All-Star Game break contests, was back in the lineup for Friday’s win over the Maple Leafs.
He sought to be philosophical over his enforced absence.
“I think you can learn a lot actually, sitting and watching a few games,” Cholowski said. “That was basically what they wanted me to do. I’d played every game so far and haven’t really had a chance to sit back and watch a few games and learn what I can do in different areas.
“Recently some goals have been going in against me lately. Just being able to go up there and watch the guys and see what they do in certain situations, I think it was good for me.”
Blashill felt that Cholowski was making too many unforced errors that were leading to the puck ending up in Detroit’s net.
“The No. 1 thing he’s got to do in my opinion is recognize danger,” Blashill said. “When you recognize danger, now it’s time to pull back a little bit.
“I’ll use the Calgary shorthanded goal (in Detroit’s 6-4 loss Jan. 18) as an example. He was in the middle of the slot, the puck got past him. He maybe forced a little bit, but he could have backed out and said, ‘I’m going to live another day. I’m going to take this two-on-two rush, we’re going to get the puck and we’re going to re-attack.’
“Instead he tried to make something out of nothing, which a lot of young players do. The maturation process of those young players is to learn to take what’s given.”
Earlier in that same game, Cholowski threw a pass across the Detroit goalmouth that was intercepted and shot into the Wings net.
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