Kronwall and Holmstrom to play against the sharks

[Guest mindfly]

Red Wings' Niklas Kronwall set to play against Sharks

February 01, 2010, 5:03PM

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Update from Monday's Detroit Red Wings practice at the HP Pavilion:

Defenseman Niklas Kronwall skated and said he felt good and will play Tuesday against the Sharks. Kronwall got a scare early in overtime during Sunday's 2-1 shootout loss in Pittsburgh, when he banged his left knee into Jordan Staal's knee. Kronwall missed the rest of the OT.

“When I woke this morning, even last night after the flight, it felt a lot better than what I thought it would be,'' Kronwall said. “I think I’ll be fine.’’

Kronwall sprained his MCL in the same knee on a knee-on-knee check from Montreal's Georgres Laraque on Nov. 21 and missed nearly 10 weeks.

“Once you’ve been injured and you get hit on it the first time, you panic,'' coach Mike Babcock said. "You can’t blame a guy, you think you’ve been out all this time and here we go again.’’

Tomas Holmstrom will return to action after missing 13 games with a fractured foot.

“What we need in Homer is he’s got emotion, he’s fired up to play the game, we need that,'' Babcock said. "I’m excited he’s coming back. We need someone to be in front of their net and drive their goalie crazy. Let’s forget about being on the outside and be on the inside. Those things are contagious.’’

Here are the lines they practiced with, though Babcock said not to read anything into them, that he split up Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg just to get them skating through the middle of the ice.

Filppula-Datsyuk-Holmstrom (Franzen working in)

Bertuzzi-Zetterberg-Cleary

Draper-Helm-Eaves

Maltby-Miller-Williams (May and Leino working in)

[Theophany 110]

Now we just need Franzen to come back a game early so that I can see him play live on Saturday!

[Guest mindfly]

Also notice the practice lines... I dunno if Filppula at wing playing alongside datsyuk is a smart idea.. too much fancy stuff and passes...

[Heroes of Hockeytown 694]

Also notice the practice lines... I dunno if Filppula at wing playing alongside datsyuk is a smart idea.. too much fancy stuff and passes...

Quoth the article: "Here are the lines they practiced with, though Babcock said not to read anything into them, that he split up Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg just to get them skating through the middle of the ice."

[FunkedUp 29]

Also notice the practice lines... I dunno if Filppula at wing playing alongside datsyuk is a smart idea.. too much fancy stuff and passes...

I like it. Something needs to be shaken up, and it's worth a shot.

[cupforwings 138]

yeah, I like those lines too... Nothing was getting done before. Plus, that Bert-Z-Cleary line will probably be the line when Franzen comes back... get the chemistry going now.

[NorCalGrl 9]

Yup, we just arrived to the hotel an hour ago and I've already seen Babcock and Ozzy (staying next door to us!!). Usually, once evening hits, we start seeing players left and right. I'm waiting to see way more of them when we go out tonight, as they're usually at the shops and restaurants up and down the street. Seeing Holmstrom tonight will get me as excited as I could ever get in anticipation for a Sharks game! We need to win this one!

[dirtydangles 1,328]

great news, we are almost out of excuses for this team losing, once franzen is back, its do or die. lilja isnt going to solve our offensive struggles when he returns.

[under_par_00 45]

Yup, we just arrived to the hotel an hour ago and I've already seen Babcock and Ozzy (staying next door to us!!). Usually, once evening hits, we start seeing players left and right. I'm waiting to see way more of them when we go out tonight, as they're usually at the shops and restaurants up and down the street. Seeing Holmstrom tonight will get me as excited as I could ever get in anticipation for a Sharks game! We need to win this one!

Babcock and Ozzy in the same room?

[titanium2 867]

great news, we are almost out of excuses for this team losing, once franzen is back, its do or die. lilja isnt going to solve our offensive struggles when he returns.

More like once everyone is back and up to speed chemistry wise they'll no longer have any excuses.

[Guest Howard He Do It?!]

Holmstrom is a welcome addition because of his net presence. Kronwall needs to watch that knee. He's a valuable part of the defense, our best defenseman until he got injured, and the Wings cannot afford to lose him again or anyone for that matter.

[Guest mindfly]

Holmstrom is a welcome addition because of his net presence. Kronwall needs to watch that knee. He's a valuable part of the defense, our best defenseman until he got injured, and the Wings cannot afford to lose him again or anyone for that matter.

And we cannot afford him to not play games and never get into the shape he was pre-mcl-injury.

[Guest Howard He Do It?!]

And we cannot afford him to not play games and never get into the shape he was pre-mcl-injury.

This is especially true with the possible upcoming return of Lilja. If Lilja finds his way back into the lineup he will have a considerable amount of rust to shake off. The Wings can ill afford to have 2 defenseman trying to get back to pre-injury conditioning.

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

[Guest Lidstromboli]

kronwall needs to watch those bad pinches

who does he think he is, brad lebda?

[clutchngrab 12]

Babcock and Ozzy in the same room?

They are planning to resolve their media aired differences with a good old fashioned pillow fight.

[TheOwl 77]

I don't understand why the Bertuzzi-Datsyuk-Homer line isn't coming back. It had a lot of chemistry, especially between Dats-Bert. I really don't see why Bab's keeps changing the lines. Do what most teams do. Keep two guys who play well together, and rotate a third guy in need be. Datsyuk and Bertuzzi should be on the same line, I don't care who's coming back.

I like the idea of Flipulla becoming a set up man for Datysuk. Datysuk has one of the best shots on the team, let him do the scoring, and give him a set up man!

Edited February 2, 2010 by TheOwl

[titanium2 867]

kronwall needs to watch those bad pinches

who does he think he is, brad lebda?

It's Bart Lebda that's the funniest.

[under_par_00 45]

I don't understand why the Bertuzzi-Datsyuk-Homer line isn't coming back. It had a lot of chemistry, especially between Dats-Bert. I really don't see why Bab's keeps changing the lines. Do what most teams do. Keep two guys who play well together, and rotate a third guy in need be. Datsyuk and Bertuzzi should be on the same line, I don't care who's coming back.

I like the idea of Flipulla becoming a set up man for Datysuk. Datysuk has one of the best shots on the team, let him do the scoring, and give him a set up man!

I agree. I think that Filppula and Datsyuk can both hold onto the puck for a long time, and Datsyuk knows how to sneak around and get open. They could work well together.

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

Flipper and Datsyuk have played together in the past, a lot in the '07 playoffs and some in '08 playoffs, so there is some "chemistry" there.

[NeverForgetMac25 483]

Also notice the practice lines... I dunno if Filppula at wing playing alongside datsyuk is a smart idea.. too much fancy stuff and passes...

God help me...I'm agreeing with Mindfly. Whether this is nothing to read into or not, I just can't see that line being overly successful unless Babs screams in Dats and Fils ears before each and every shift to shoot the puck! Homer will help give them space, but they're still going to need to get the puck on net if this line is in fact together.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to give the line a shot, but personally I like the idea of Bert-Dats-Homer better simply because while Bert isn't as shifty as Fil, he's uber-strong on the puck and he'll have space with Homer in front of the net. Logic says with Homer back, we'd see a lot of goals ala Dats to Bert to Homer or Dats to Bert with Homer screening.