Anyone else have a feeling that Z is injured?

[Guest EZBAKETHAGANGSTA]

I cannot stop but noticing the Z is noticiably weaker on his right arm than normally. His skating and everything is still top notch but am i the only one who has a feeling he may have a wrist or forearm injury and is playing thru pain?

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

I'd have to agree, because it looks like he's passing up on wristshots and one-timers, to make passes or put the puck on his backhand.

It's too obvious not to notice.

[redwinger4747 6]

I'd have to agree, because it looks like he's passing up on wristshots and one-timers, to make passes or put the puck on his backhand.

It's too obvious not to notice.

if he was injured, he would not have played the regular season finale. I think its that simple.

[Booster313 138]

I think he's just snake bit right now, it's not like he's playing terribly he just isn't scoring right now.

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

Probably his wrist. He isnt shooting and he's a leftie, he hurt his right wrist (??), so that would make sense.

[betterREDthandead 58]

if he was injured, he would not have played the regular season finale. I think its that simple.

That was six games ago.

But even if Z is playing through some pain, I'm not too worried. It can't be too serious, not like a broken wrist or anything, if he's still playing. And now there's a few days to rest it.

[gcom007 1,465]

I wouldn't be surprised if he's got a little something bothering him, but maybe not too. Something's definitely up and being realistic, he's going to have to fix it if we're going to be successful.

Osgood can keep playing absolutely great moving forward, but we can't win every game close. Every team moving forward is going to have a lot more firepower than the Preds had. While we'll still have to sweat out some close, low-scoring games, we're going to have to have more than 1/2 of our big 2 putting up consistent numbers to win them let alone the games where a great offense makes great plays and scores 3-4 goals no matter how well Ozzie and the D play. It's going to happen soon enough barring a miracle, especially if we get Colorado.

So simply put, Zetterberg needs to work some things out between now and Game 1 of Round 2. I think he will, which is better than the "hope he will" I gave Samuellson in another thread. Injured or not, people talk about this guy and mention Steve Yzerman in the same sentence. No way in hell Zetts is dealing with probably half as much as Yzerman was going through in 2002 and Yzerman was what, probably 10 years older than Zetts? But Yzerman still found a way to come up huge for his team. So simply put, if Zetts wants to be that guy moving forward and if he wants to justify the fact that he's going to get Datsyuk/Lidstrom/Franchise money, he needs to do whatever it takes no matter what's going on to start seriously producing. If he doesn't, the rest of the team could do everything else right and I still don't think we'd be able to go all the way.

So let's hope so, eh?

[sixer 37]

Anyone else thinks Z needs to pass a little more?

[pavyaz19 1]

if he was injured, he would not have played the regular season finale. I think its that simple.

so there's no chance he was injured within the past 6 games since then?

[pavyaz19 1]

Anyone else thinks Z needs to pass a little more?

I noticed him making some odd decisions as well... but I think he's just a bit out of sync. Unless he's actually hurt, he'll be fine next round.

If you think he's shooting too much, it may be due to the fact that Ellis gives up big rebounds. He may have been looking for Holmstrom to pick up the sloppy seconds.

[lets go pavel 2]

i don't know, he hasn't been as productive point-wise as he usually is, but sometimes those are the breaks, and he has been going up against the top defensive pairing ... i would think the best indicator is whether he's practicing ... everyone's a little banged up this time of year, but i would imagine if he's nursing anything at all serious he would be sitting out some practices ... haven't heard anything in that regard ... anyone?

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

He's switching too much to his backhand, sometimes when it's unecessary. To me that suggests that something is seriously wrong. On the 2-on-1 today, he cut inside to the backhand instead of shooting. He's usually smarter than that.

[StayStevieStay 0]

In the last 2 games they weren't utilizing Datysuk nearly as much as they should to create the space and plays, this is what the problem was. Zetterberg is not Datsyuk! so i'm not sure why he was trying to do everything himself when Dats is right there to do the job for him - and it makes even more sense if Zetterberg is playing injured.

Or maybe Babcock told Zett's to start getting creative on his own to take some of the pressure off Dats - thinking maybe after 4 games Trotz might actually realize that Datsyuk is always the one bringing it into the zone, slowing things down and doing things that most players couldn't even dream of doing. It does make sense because by end of every series Dats always has 2 guys lurking on him at all times.

[Heaton 1]

He's switching too much to his backhand, sometimes when it's unecessary. To me that suggests that something is seriously wrong. On the 2-on-1 today, he cut inside to the backhand instead of shooting. He's usually smarter than that.

He always goes to his back hand in those situations. He was just trying to be too cute since the regular wristers weren't doing anything.