Lilja's status now "Questionable"

[zata20 4]

Lilja is now taking part in all practice drills, but he still needs medical clearance.

http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2009/05/ma...rward_vill.html

[nkuehnl 0]

If Detroit starts taking a lot of penalties for some odd reason, then I could justify Lilja being put into the line-up. His 5 on 5 play can be Hal Gill-levels of atrocious, though, and he would be exposed against a fast team like Chicago. On top of that, Lebda has played well and I really don't see a reason to replace him at this moment.

Glad to see Lilja is getting better, though. Concussions suck.

[NeverForgetMac25 483]

I really wonder how his conditioning is given that the Doctors basically wouldn't let him do anything until his headaches went away. The Lilja the Wings have had this year and last would be an unbelievable asset to the bottom pairing and alongside Lidstrom on the PK, but you gotta wonder if he'd be in that form at this point. Even if he's been skating for a few weeks, he'd be so far behind everyone else given the amount of time he's gone without gameplay.

Sidenote: I still can't believe how many people haven't realized how strong of an asset Lilja has been the past two years...not just this year. I suppose its like the Sammy trend. People hear him getting ripped on here at LGW and the ignorant continue to bash well longer than its deserved. For the price, Sammy has been great the past few years and the same goes for Lilja, yet we still hear bitching. Like I've said for the past few years, for their respective contracts Lilja and Sammy are great.

[nkuehnl 0]

Like I've said for the past few years, for their respective contracts Lilja and Sammy are great.

I've always liked both of them for what they are: 3rd line/3rd pairing players.

Reasonable people discovered that, when given more minutes than they deserve, Samuelsson and Lilja have significant negative attributes in their games (terrible shot/shoots too much, and poor puckhandler/slow skater). As this was repeated, everyone else jumped on the badnwagon and took those criticisms to hyperbolic levels. Now as the trend reverses, and the original critics tried telling people that both players have some redeemable values, everyone thinks those two players are somehow key contributors to this team when they're not.

Essentially, we're back to stage one where there are a few critics and everyone else is exaggerating about a couple of marginal players.

I'm not going to get into another argument because the last one went beyond the pale in terms of stupidity. Anyone watching Lilja's game knows where his faults are and knows that Chicago has been capitalizing on the same issues in other series. Regardless of this, Lebda has been good and there's no reason to replace him.

[Husker BigGuy 0]

I seriously doubt Lilja plays throughout the playoffs.

[DEVILSWATERBOY 10]

Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said defenseman Andreas Lilja is "way ahead of where he was 2-3 weeks ago" in his recovery from a concussion. His status for this series remains questionable. He has been out since Feb. 28 but has been skating for weeks.

This is great news, I remember that a week or so ago he was pretty much written off for the playoffs, now he might even play in this series, that would be a massive upgrade to our 3rd pairing.

This is great news for Lilja but no way do you bring him in now

[Guest micah]

somewhere, Patrick Sharpe's PTSD is ratcheting up. No way Sharpe sees the ice for the rest of the series. He'll probably retire when he reads this article.

[NomadFromKazoo 42]

I seriously doubt Lilja plays throughout the playoffs.

I agree he's probably not going to get regular uninjured minutes. But for the depth minutes instead of Meech or Cheli? Sure, I could see that if he gets medical clearance.

[Heroes of Hockeytown 694]

somewhere, Patrick Sharpe's PTSD is ratcheting up. No way Sharpe sees the ice for the rest of the series. He'll probably retire when he reads this article.

Spot on GMR impersonation.

[Frozen-Man 144]

Sidenote: I still can't believe how many people haven't realized how strong of an asset Lilja has been the past two years...not just this year. I suppose its like the Sammy trend. People hear him getting ripped on here at LGW and the ignorant continue to bash well longer than its deserved. For the price, Sammy has been great the past few years and the same goes for Lilja, yet we still hear bitching. Like I've said for the past few years, for their respective contracts Lilja and Sammy are great.

QFT