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In for a penny in for a pound. I'll be done with this season when lockers are being cleaned out.

I'm sure that other than his health and trying to carry Detroit into the playoffs, this is his biggest worry: gaining back your respect.

Yeah I also wish Z was a terrible captain with a complete lack of heart who is willing to let down his country, family and friends because he wants some extra rest. He'll be fine. Did people freak out in 2002 too?

Canadian College.

Spoken like someone whos never gotten the shot to represent there country in something. To most athletes (especially those from Europe) representing ones country is the highest honor. Yes even more so than the Stanley Cup. Hank owes nothing to the Red Wings or Red Wings fans. He has the life he has because he worked his ass off not because the Wings gifted him a paycheck. He helped bring a Championship and almost a second to this city when the team was supposed to be in transition. If anything the fans owe him for the joy hes brought them. He's earned the right to put Sweden over the Wings. I dont know what fantasy land your in but the Wings are not contenders this year. Sweden on the other hand was a contender for a Gold Medal. Common sense dictates which one he should go for at the end of a career. Challenging his loyalties because he went and played in the Olympics is just disrespectful for a guy whose battled for over 10 years for the Wings and its fans. Get over yourself. Yes because carrying this team on his injured back the past couple months is not worth your respect.

For those saying Datsyuk and Zetterberg should have opted to not participate in Olympics... Have you ever heard about the national pride? There are only few things in this modern world you can't buy and this is one of them.

Wow, some of the responses in this thread...unbelievable. His back has been injured all year. It's not like he injured it MORE by playing in the Olympics. If he wasn't playing in Sochi he'd be playing in Detroit, and he'd still be getting injured because the NHL game is more physical. Are you people just dying or a reason to b*tch or what?

Simply not true. Franzen was concussed before the Olympics, and would still be out concussed in an NHL only no-Olympics season. He didn't suffer another concussion when he came back for 1 game, he simply wasn't recovered from his initial concussion (only 3 days symptom free when the protocol is meant to be minimum 7). He didn't rush back for the Olympics, he rushed back because we had no centers. Datsyuk was injured before the Olympics and would still be injured without the Olympics. He may be guilty of delaying surgery so as not to miss Sochi, but we won't know that for another 2 weeks. Zetterberg has been plagued with his bad back for 3 months now. He hasn't practised in forever. He's clearly been playing through the pain for Detroit. He had it before the Olympics, and he would have had it without an Olympics. MANY on here have speculated that it was only a matter of time before his back went again. Unlucky for us it went after the Czech game.

Not to mention he's 2nd on our team in points for Dmen and that's with squat all, if any PP time this year. I don't smell what the Babcock is cookin'.

Finally made an account on this forum just for this post, after months of reading anonymously. At the beginning of this season, I was all for trading a Nyquist or Tatar for someone that could help the D. Given the circumstances at that time, we had a bunch of offensive players and forwards, to the extent that neither would play, and we had an expected to be, weak D. An upgrade there via player that couldn't crack the lineup would have been massive. Fast forward to now, where Nyquist, and the Tatar/Sheahan/Jurco line has been the brightest spot for this team, I'm almost to the point where I'd say stay put unless someone is basically giving up a Dman. Our defense isn't the best, but Smith has improved tremendously in the past 20-25 games, on top of Kronner, E and DK. It'd have to be a Letang or Subban that got me to give up a Gus or Tats or anyone closely rated in that area

Well, I am not going to speculate, Z knows what he can do, and what he can't with that back. But this makes me sad for him. He was having a blast. I feel so bad that he's hurt and can't play for his country. Just hope he can recover and come back for us, soon - love the guy and he makes such a huge difference for the Wings. Feel better, Hank.

All speculation on your part as well. Nothing factual to back it up. Datsyuk would not be playing with the Red Wings right now. He's still be out with the injury. It was clear to anyone who saw him play that he's not even close to being recovered. He would still be sitting out if the season was ongoing, as well he should be. Same with Zetterberg. They were playing so they could go to the Olympics, not to help the Red Wings.

While I agree with this, and I was a big supporter of the Weiss signing, there is a whole lot riding on him becoming who we signed him to be, but if z ends up on ltir, we can keep the kids up and roll 4 dangerous lines, with Weiss, helm, franzen Datsyuk, alfie, nyquist, tats sheahan, and jurco, we could be a force to be reckoned with, shame it has to be on z's back (no pun intended) though...

Just got the notification ruling him out of the rest of the tournament. Must be a major bummer for him. I don't blame him or anyone for going at all as I love the Olympics and have no problem with NHL players, especially the Wings players, participating. That said though, I hope he's dropping out because he has a long term commitment to the Wings and doesn't want to chance it as opposed to it being more serious. It sounds a big ominous to me given the tonal change between earlier when the injury was initially announced and now. As much as I love and respect the Olympics, given his history of problems and his NHL contract, he should definitely not be pushing through the pain and risk it becoming a more serious injury to play in the Olympics. Ugh... Every time his back flares up though I get more and more worried about his long term effectiveness. He'll be a great leader as long as he plays no doubt, but this is the kind of injury that's hard to iron out and it's likely to either greatly inhibit and/or shorten a career as time goes on.

I thought hamhuis was good. The Defense as a whole was good. It's hard to get a lot of scoring chances against a team that wasn't trying to win. They just were playing to keep the goals down. I think Canada was just trying to do all the right things and the score didn't matter to them. They could have been sailing the puck in as soon as they entered the blue line on a bad goalie and probably netted some more. They played a good structured game after the first period. Norway's second goal was pretty flukey on a bad play behind the net by Price

Plus: inevitable future injuries. Hell, we've got ten players in Sochi, at least two of which are clearly trying to play through injury. So I'd say the odds are pretty good that at least one of Jurco/Sheahan will be called up again before we even reach the playoffs. And another thing: it's only going to get rougher, chippier, etc. from here until the playoffs, given how tight the races are in both conferences. So, really, we WILL be dealing with more injuries. Bank on it. The only thing I really don't like about it is that Cleary and Bertuzzi (and Samuelsson?) are, ultimately, safe. So all the talk about the best guys playing and a guy's pay being irrelevant was mostly just talk. Not that I don't get that we're in cap hell. I guess I, like everyone, am frustrated that we have to be in cap hell at all. Re-signing Cleary and Bertuzzi, overpaying Tootoo, bringing back Samuelsson...and I'm not convinced Kenny has learned his lesson.

Great result for Team USA today. I was expecting a tight win for the Americans and did not expect a 7-1 sHALAKing! (hah!) I can't wait for the USA Russia game Saturday morning the atmosphere will be electric. I was disappointed with Team Canada. Even though they controlled the game (as they should against Norway) they couldn't finish. Thankfully I'm accustomed to being disappointed by team Canada in the Round-Robin stage of the Olympics as they often take a few games to start clicking. 2010 L 5-3 USA W 3-2 OT Switzerland W 8-0 Norway 2002 L 5-2 Sweden W 3-2 Germany T 3-3 Czech Republic - Hopefully Russia and Sweden go home early so Datsyuk and Zetterberg can rest up and get healthy for the Wings playoff push.

Well hey, at least we get Steven Weiss back soon....

Listening to the interview with Team Sweden's doctor, I'm less worried. Sounds like it's the same thing he's been dealing with every now and then the last couple of weeks. Not good of course, but doesn't seem like anything that's likely to keep him out for very long, if he even misses the game tomorrow. It sucks that both Z and Pav are playing through these injuries but what can you do. I for one would think it's worse if they miss maybe their final chance at Olympic gold.

No say it ain't so.... Back is toast...he needs to take the entire tourney off in order to heal up enough to come play for who puts his food on the table...

That just sounds so wrong....I can't understand it. I do the same thing when Wing players are playing against other countries, but no way would I cheer against Canada.

Both, I think. Huds is only about 5'8" IIRC. Pro basketball players are usually much taller. Huds looks like me shooting- except that he made one at the end.

It's better than getting nothing and also part of doing the classy thing by providing someone who is on his last legs with an opportunity to win his first Stanley Cup.

We're making the playoffs. End of story. This reminds me of all the people last year who were hoping we would miss the playoffs to snag a high draft pick and making some selling trades. "Because we didn't have a chance anyways"