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Walking Wounded Working Their Way Back |
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The walking wounded are slowly working their way back toward the Detroit Red Wings’ lineup. Both defenseman Jonathan Ericsson and forward Thomas Vanek, currently out with lower-body injuries, returned to practice on Monday.
Of the two, it would appear that Vanek is the closest to getting back into game action, with a chance that he could be available for Wednesday’s game at Little Caesars Arena against the Boston Bruins.
“We’ll see how it feels tomorrow, practice again tomorrow and go from there,” said Vanek, who has missed eight games since he was hurt Oct. 30 at Columbus.
“Just a little knee on knee,” Vanek told Mlive.com. “Twisted something in there. I’ve been skating for eight, nine days. Skating-wise I feel fine. It’s just you gotta feel a little contact, a little battle and see how it reacts.
“Today went pretty well for the most part. Let’s see how it feels tomorrow.”
The status of Ericsson, hurt during a post-game workout following a Nov. 1 win over New Jersey, is as shrouded in as much mystery as his ailment. He’s missed seven games.
“I don’t know,” Ericsson said. “We haven’t really talked about it. I don’t know anything right now. It felt really good in practice today. It’s nice to have the first team practice. Obviously, a little bit of a ways to go but way better.
Ericsson was satisfied with his progress during his first on-ice workout involving physical contact.
“It’s a good test, obviously,” Ericsson said. “I did some transition things and pivoting and stuff like that. That’s probably the hardest part for me. But also battling in different situations and angles helps me. It felt pretty good.”
There was no further update on the status of forward Darren Helm, who suffered an upper-body injury in Saturday’s win at New Jersey.
“Darren, I’ll know more tomorrow,” Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “He was evaluated today. In terms of prognosis and give you a little bit better estimate of time. But like I said after the game, this is not a day to day thing. He’ll be out a good amount of time.”
Even if Vanek can’t go Wednesday, Blashill doubted that there would be any recalls from AHL Grand Rapids.
“I wanted to see where Thomas was at,” Blashill said. “I would not anticipate it if he’s as close as I think he is. Even if he couldn’t play Wednesday, but may be ready Friday, with (forward Wade) Megan up, I wouldn’t make any different call-ups.”
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