OT: Zetterberg to miss rest of Olympics
Henrick Zetterberg, Sweden's current team captain, will miss the rest of the Sochi Olympics due to nagging back injuries. He has consulted the NHL doctors present in Sochi and seems like everyone is on board with the decision.
The article mentions that this may impact the Red Wings' post season, but obviously there's more going on in Hockeytown than just this. Z is headed home soon to get evaluated and see if surgery is required.
Kronwall will take his place as the new captain for Team Sweden.
Link: http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/story/swedes-zetterberg-out-for-olympics-with-back-injury-021414
February 14th, 2014 at 9:02 AM ^
I know the team is weaker than it's been, but keep the streak alive! Feel better Henrik!
February 14th, 2014 at 9:30 AM ^
February 14th, 2014 at 9:45 AM ^
February 14th, 2014 at 9:54 AM ^
February 14th, 2014 at 10:22 AM ^
It's just been the story for the Wings the past couple years.
Sucks for Team Sweden too - Zetterberg, Sedin, and Franzen are out.
February 14th, 2014 at 10:26 AM ^
February 14th, 2014 at 10:33 AM ^
Yes, they're in fine position to make the playoffs, but losing Zetterberg might change all of that.
By the numbers, the Wings are 6 point out of third place in their Atlantic Division. Top 3 teams from Atlantic and Metropolitan divisions make the playoffs, as do the next two best teams from the Eastern Conference. Montreal and Toronto both have 70 points, but the Wings have played 2 fewer games than Toronto and 1 fewer game than Montreal. They could easily climb into the top 3 of the division with a hot streak. Tampa Bay has 71 points and also has played two more games than the Wings.
That being said, the Wings are right now just one point ahead of three teams vying for the final wild card spot (Ottawa, Columbus, Washington), while two other teams (Carolina and New Jersey) have 61 points.
A solid March and April will get the Wings into the playoffs. But just how they'll put together a solid 6 weeks is tough to figure out with all the injuries they're facing.
February 14th, 2014 at 10:45 AM ^
Amazing they are in contention with the team they have been putting on the ice. Hope they can have a good run after the Olympics.
February 14th, 2014 at 12:17 PM ^
Honest it feels like the Wings have been seriously injured ever since the 2009 playoffs. Maybe it's an irrational feeling but it definitely seems like there hasn't been a time since 2008 where the Wings were truly full strength.
February 14th, 2014 at 12:49 PM ^
The 2009 playoffs were definitely when the inury bug started to hit a bit, especially in comparison to the 2008 run where the team emerged relatively unscathed. In 2009, Datsyuk missed most of the conference finals and the first 4 games of the Cup finals with an injury, Rafalski's back/shoulder were messed up and rendered him less effective than the prior year, and Lidstrom missed a couple games after Patrick Sharp did painful things to Lidstrom's man parts with a stick.
But 2010 was the real year of injuries - the entire team seemed crippled at one point or another and it was a constant rotation of guys to the IR all year long. They got most of them back for the playoffs but were completely gassed from the prior 3 years of runs and didn't do much in the 2nd round.
The team was much healthier in 2011 and played like it for most of the season, aside from an early season fluke injury to Mike Modano. The problem that year was that they got down 3-0 in the 2nd round to the Sharks before fighting back to even the series. Prior to that series, Franzen had already messed up his ankle in Round 1 and then in Game 7 of a one goal loss, both Cleary and Bertuzzi got concussions.
2012 had some injuries but nothing out of the ordinary until Lidstrom and Helm got hurt. Lidstrom never really recovered and was a shell of his normal self in an embarassing first round playoff loss to Nashville. Helm was hurt for most of the last 2 months of the season, came back for Game 1 against Nashville and promptly got hurt 10 minutes into the game, knocking him out for the rest of the playoffs.
2013 had some injuries, but I thought by and large the team was ok healthwise last year - they're biggest challenge was figuring out how to move on without Lidstrom in a lockout-shortened season. Overall they figured it out at the end of the year and had a good run in the playoffs against two of the best teams in the league (Anaheim and Chicago). Last year's run created a ton of optimism for this year.
This year has been either the worst or 2nd worst year of injuries over the past 5 years (it's either 2014 or 2010, both of which were awful). I would argue that this year might be even worse since at least in 2010, Zetterberg and Datsyuk were mostly healthy down the stretch. Unlikely that this will be the case this year, and the team is relying on those guys even more now than they did 4 years ago. I thought that the bad breaks might eventually end in the 2nd half of the season, but it certainly does not appear to be the case. Unless Zetterberg takes a month off and is able to come back pain free, this team probably has little shot of making any noise in the playoffs this year, assuming they even get there in the first place.
February 14th, 2014 at 6:45 PM ^
February 14th, 2014 at 10:56 AM ^
Anyone who tries to blame this on the olympics, or uses this an an argument for why the NHL shouldn't let it's players participate in the olympics, is just dumb.
Zetterberg has a herniated disk! That is not something that goes away during the course of a season (ask Mitch McGary). It has been bothering him for a while. It flared up because he plays hockey. Whether for his country or the Red Wings, this would have happened.
I honestly feel that at his age, Zetterberg will feel the effects of this injury for the rest of his career. And that is a damn shame.
Get well soon captain.
February 14th, 2014 at 11:03 AM ^
This makes me sad. The wings can't afford a long-term, or even a short-term Zetterburg injury. This really kind of sucks.
February 14th, 2014 at 11:11 AM ^
February 14th, 2014 at 11:23 AM ^
Good. Clearly we are more about the Red Wings.
February 14th, 2014 at 11:43 AM ^
Kronwall was already wearing the C for Sweden in the game earlier today. Hope Z heals quickly, but at least it was during break so he can heal up a bit before games start and won't miss as much time. He seems to have these back problems almost every year...
February 14th, 2014 at 11:48 AM ^
It is unbelievable how much injuries have decimated the Wings this year. I'm sorry for Z that he wasn't able to stay and captain his country to a medal, it has to be tough. At least he has the 06 gold.
On another note, I absolutely cannot wait to beat Russia tomorrow morning. Pavel is still nursing an injury so he is not anywhere near 100% either. Never thought I would be glad to say that...
February 14th, 2014 at 12:30 PM ^
The Red Wings blew up after the Olympic break four years ago - 16 wins in 21 games, if memory serves. A similar performance would be amazing this year, given age and injuries. And of course, this team doesn't have Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski taking the opposing team's top line out of the game. I'd hate to see the streak end, but this team is in a rough transitional period and the injuries only make it worse. Holland's lack of any moves whatsoever apart from signing old, perpetually-injured free agents isn't helping, either.
February 14th, 2014 at 1:27 PM ^
February 14th, 2014 at 1:53 PM ^
So if 1997/1998 are Devellano's Cups (who the fuck is Delvanos?), and 2002 was bought, then what would you call 2008? Or the 2009 team?
And what Wings fans do you know that are more excited over playoffs than Stanley Cups?
February 14th, 2014 at 3:01 PM ^
To answer your question about who likes the playoff streams more than the cups I've heard it from numerous people. Anytime you see people talk shit to other fanbases they always say 22 straight playoff appearances and it just blows my mind that that's what is chosen to boast about the team. Unless you are canadiens or maple leafs fans no one is close to cups and that is what we should be proud of. I went to the Anaheim playoff game last year and the guy in front of me was mad that I was pissed because they lost 3-0 at home. He tried to tell me that I should just be glad that they made the playoffs and my mind was blown.
/end rant
The moral is there are a lot of idiot red wings fans out there who don't know what they are talking about and ken holland is not abstain from criticism despite his success.
February 14th, 2014 at 7:06 PM ^
February 14th, 2014 at 8:57 PM ^
Nonetheless I give holland credit because he has done a lot of good things. I'm probably too hard on him just not used to the last few seasons
February 14th, 2014 at 1:58 PM ^
What moves is he supposed to have made? I'll agree with you that re-signing guys like Samuelsson and Cleary were perplexing.
It's not like he hasn't tried to make moves, he went hard after Suter and to an extension Parise, but there really hasn't been any obvious moves to make.
February 14th, 2014 at 3:40 PM ^
I completely agree, especially because there wasn't many good players to sign. He got Alfredsson and Weiss (who will be great if he could get healthy) and to get anyone else we would have had to trade tons of talent from Grand Rapids. It's great that the young guys are now playing ahead of Cleary, Samuelsson and Bertuzzi. This team is trending up rather than down, and much of their problems this year have been due to injury. The youngins are going to carry this team to the playoffs: Nyquist, Tatar, Sheahan.