Rafalski, Draper, Kopecky won't play Sunday

[Guest mindfly]

Red Wings defenseman Brian Rafalski, center Kris Draper and winger Tomas Kopecky all have been ruled out for Sunday's Game 5 against Anaheim at Joe Louis Arena, the team announced Friday.

Rafalski and Draper have "upper-body" injuries. Kopecky took a hard left-hand punch to the head by Anaheim's Francois Beauchemin on Thursday night.

DAMN YOUUUU

who will play of the black aces? Abdelkader? Leino?

The quote is from

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090508/SP...0457/1128/rss16

Edited May 8, 2009 by mindfly

[redwings4life 3]

i'm not happy with this news i thought Ken Daniels said he'd be playing in game 5 we need Raffy back

It really irks me that both times with played anaheim in the post season we've been down two of our top four defenseman

Edited May 8, 2009 by redwings4life

[Guest Shoreline]

Leino.

[CenterIce 83]

DAMN YOUUUU

who will play of the black aces? Abdelkader? Leino?

It all depends on what Babcock wants from that fourth line. A little grinding/defense/extra center would indicate Abdelkader. If he wants more scoring touch, it would be Leino.

[egroen 384]

I want Leino as a first option and than Abdelakader. Leino is not afraid to go to the net (neither is Abdelkader), but is far more skilled and ready. Produces every darn time he comes up.

[EuroTwin 240]

Awww man. I was hoping some of them would be back. *coughRafalskicough*

[Guest mindfly]

I just feel so bad about all the injuries just look at a possible D-core of

Lidstrom-Rafalski

Kronwall-Stuart

Ericsson-Lilja

That's awesome, now it's

Lidstrom-Ericsson

Kronwall-Stuart

Lebda-Chelios

The difference is remarkable

[titanium2 867]

Does this mean that they're going to have Helm center both the 3rd and 4th lines?

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

Leino/Downey/Abdelkader will all do a fine job replacing Kopecky, and someone should check the Red Wings heads, jesus 2 fights in 2 months and both guys go down.

[RedwingsPwn 0]

Leino! Leino! Leino! Leino!

Datsyuk - Zetterberg - Holmstrom

Franzen - Filipulla - Hossa

Cleary - Hudler - Leino/Sammuelsson

Maltby - Helm - Leino/Sammuelsson

[NeverForgetMac25 483]

I just feel so bad about all the injuries just look at a possible D-core of

Lidstrom-Rafalski

Kronwall-Stuart

Ericsson-Lilja

That's awesome, now it's

Lidstrom-Ericsson

Kronwall-Stuart

Lebda-Chelios

The difference is remarkable

QFT

The nice thing about next year is that barring injury we'll be seeing that lineup all season.

[8 Legged RedWing 367]

Kopecky is seriously hurt from that fight? Great... well whatever, he wasn't doing much anyways. I say go with leino... Im more pissed about Rafalski still being out especially when Babcock said he would probably play Sunday. This is so annoying, Raffy is definitely out this whole series...

[Glubki 17]

Abdelkader gets my vote.

If it was any other team but the Ducks than my choice would be Leino.

Either way - no worries...

[maltbymaniac 13]

these marshmellows dont need to be fighting.we lose a guy every fight we have nowadays.

[germanwing 154]

I think Abdelkader will play.

[10 Minute Misconduct 104]

I just feel so bad about all the injuries just look at a possible D-core of

Lidstrom-Rafalski

Kronwall-Stuart

Ericsson-Lilja

That's awesome, now it's

Lidstrom-Ericsson

Kronwall-Stuart

Lebda-Chelios

The difference is remarkable

Ericsson would have never been called up if Lilja didn't go down. So he wouldn't have even been playing in the post season in the first place.

[Mickey Redmond 15]

Abdelkader! get out the sand paper!

[10 Minute Misconduct 104]

Kopecky isn't a big loss.

Rafalski not being back is kind of annoying.

[Guest mindfly]

Just thinking here....

Rafalski just gotta have concussion symptoms since he can't skate on the ice, the docs say NO, just do easy off-ice workouts... draper... rib fracture and need time to heal maybe? anyone heard if he can practice with full contact?

[uk_redwing 495]

I'd love a slice of Downey right about now...

And I dont care if Downey cant skate or if it wouldnt make a difference if he had no stick in his hands...Downey+Ducks=FUN!!

[jollymania 162]

abs would add grit, leino woudl add scoring touch, but with samuelsson producing on the 4th line maybe the more defensive minded abs would be a better fit

[Yellowknife Redwing 57]

Insert Leino into the 3rd line, scratch Chelios and put Kindl into Cheli's spot for the 6-7 mins a night that he plays to see if he can instill some trust in the coach.

What's that you say, you're worried about a rookie defenseman in the playoffs? Really, how much worse could Kindl f*** up than Chelios already has. Aside from 2 drawn penalties the other night, Cheli has committed an error (giveaways, taking penalties, out of position, incapable of skating with the other team's forwards) almost every time he's been on the ice.

[titanium2 867]

abs would add grit, leino woudl add scoring touch, but with samuelsson producing on the 4th line maybe the more defensive minded abs would be a better fit

Or you could have Leino take care of the scoring production while Sammy can be the more defensive minded one.

Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom/Cleary

Franzen-Filppula-Hossa

Hudler-Helm-Cleary

Leino/Maltby-Helm-Samuelsson

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

The longer this goes, the more serious Rafalski's injury looks.

I doubt he'll be back at all for the playoffs.

[Vincanni 1]

Unbelievable, I've pretty much marked Raffi out this series even if it goes to 7.